7-O-Geranylquercetin induces apoptosis in gastric cancer cells via ROS-MAPK mediated mitochondrial signaling pathway activation.

7-O-Geranylquercetin (GQ) is a novel O-alkylated derivate of quercetin. In this study, we evaluated its apoptosis induction effects in human gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901 and MGC-803 and explored the potential molecular mechanisms. The results demonstrated that GQ lowered viability of SGC-7901 and MGC-803 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner without apparent cytotoxicity to human gastric epithelial cell line GES-1. GQ could induce apoptosis in SGC-7901 and MGC-803cells, and arrest the gastric cancer cells at G2/M phase. Mechanism study showed that GQ triggered generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), then activated p38 and JNK signaling pathways, subsequently led to mitochondrial impairment by regulating the expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-xl and Bax, and finally promoted the release of cytochrome c and the activation of caspases to induce apoptosis. In addition, Z-VAD-FMK (caspase inhibitor) could reverse GQ-induced apoptosis. SB203580 (p38 inhibitor) and SP600125 (JNK inhibitor) could rescue GQ-induced cell death and attenuate mitochondrial signal pathway activation. Furthermore, NAC (ROS inhibitor) could rescue GQ-induced cell death, reduce ROS generation, decrease the phosphorylation of p38 and JNK, and then attenuate the activation of mitochondrial signal pathway. Taken together, GQ induces caspase-dependent apoptosis in gastric cancer cells through activating ROS-MAPK mediated mitochondrial signal pathway. This study highlights the potential use of GQ as a gastric cancer therapeutic agent.