Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Changhua Christian Hospital, Taiwan.
Department of Dermatology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Taiwan.
Environ Toxicol. 2018 Mar;33(3):343-350. doi: 10.1002/tox.22521. Epub 2017 Nov 29.
While Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is uncommon in western countries, it is endemic in Southeast Asia and Southern China. Previous study of norcantharidin (NCTD), isolated from blister beetles, has proved its anticancer effect on various tumors. However, the effect of NCTD in NPC has never been studied. The purpose of this study is to inspect the suppression activity of NCTD on NPC, along with the underlying mechanism. NPC cell line NPC-BM was treated with NCTD. NCTD remarkably inhibited proliferation and induce apoptosis in NPC-BM cell. Activation of caspase-3, -8, -9 was observed through western blotting. The expression of antiapoptotic protein Bcl-XL was significantly reduced, but expression of proapoptotic protein Bak was increased after treatment of NCTD. The cytotoxic effect of NCTD on NPC-BM cell is mainly due to apoptosis, mediated by caspase and mitochondrial pathway. These results suggested that NCTD could be a potential anticancer agent for NPC.
虽然鼻咽癌（NPC）在西方国家并不常见，但在东南亚和中国南方却是地方性疾病。从斑蝥中分离得到的去甲斑蝥素（NCTD）已被证明对多种肿瘤具有抗癌作用，此前已有相关研究。然而，NCTD 在 NPC 中的作用尚未得到研究。本研究旨在研究 NCTD 对 NPC 的抑制作用及其潜在机制。用 NCTD 处理 NPC 细胞系 NPC-BM。NCTD 可显著抑制 NPC-BM 细胞的增殖并诱导其凋亡。通过 Western blot 观察到 caspase-3、-8、-9 的激活。NCTD 处理后抗凋亡蛋白 Bcl-XL 的表达显著降低，而促凋亡蛋白 Bak 的表达增加。NCTD 对 NPC-BM 细胞的细胞毒性作用主要是通过 caspase 和线粒体途径介导的细胞凋亡。这些结果表明，NCTD 可能是 NPC 的一种潜在抗癌药物。
