Luo Yan, Tian Guoyan, Zhuang Zhenjie, Chen Jin, You Ningning, Zhuo Lili, Liang Bingtian, Song Yu, Zang Shufei, Liu Juan, Yang Jin, Ge Weihong, Shi Junping
College of Pharmaceutical Science, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Institute of Translational Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Am J Transl Res. 2019 May 15;11(5):2668-2682. eCollection 2019.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant and poor prognosis tumors, which was increasingly caused by nonalcoholic fatty liver disease/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NAFLD/NASH) in western countries. In this study, we aimed to investigate the mechanism and therapeutic prospect of berberine in the treatment of NASH-HCC mice. Combination of STZ injection and high fat and high-cholesterol diet (HFHC) was used to establish NASH-HCC model. The effect of berberine intervention is studied from histology, biochemistry and molecular level. Our results showed that administration of berberine to NASH-HCC mice reduced the incidence of tumors and mitigated NASH. Berberine significantly reduced the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), glucose (GLU), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterol (TC). Transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis identified numberous genes and various pathways may participate in the favorite effect of berberine. Specifically, berberine suppressed the expressions of genes related to lipogenesis, inflammation, fibrosis and angiogenesis. Moreover, our results showed that berberine suppressed phosphorylation of p38MAPK and ERK as well as COX2 expression significantly. This suggested berberine achieved its biological functions mainly by regulating inflammation and angiogenesis genes involving p38MAPK/ERK-COX2 pathways. This study demonstrated the anti-tumor effects of berberine and its possible mechanism, providing a potential drug for treating NASH-HCC.
肝细胞癌(HCC)是最具恶性且预后较差的肿瘤之一,在西方国家,其发病率因非酒精性脂肪性肝病/非酒精性脂肪性肝炎(NAFLD/NASH)而日益增加。在本研究中,我们旨在探讨小檗碱治疗NASH-HCC小鼠的机制及治疗前景。采用链脲佐菌素注射联合高脂高胆固醇饮食(HFHC)建立NASH-HCC模型。从小檗碱干预的组织学、生物化学及分子水平方面研究其作用效果。我们的结果显示,给NASH-HCC小鼠施用小檗碱可降低肿瘤发生率并减轻NASH。小檗碱显著降低了丙氨酸转氨酶(ALT)、天冬氨酸转氨酶(AST)、葡萄糖(GLU)、高密度脂蛋白(HDL)、低密度脂蛋白(LDL)及总胆固醇(TC)的水平。转录组测序及生物信息学分析确定了众多可能参与小檗碱有益作用的基因及多种途径。具体而言,小檗碱抑制了与脂肪生成、炎症、纤维化及血管生成相关基因的表达。此外,我们的结果显示,小檗碱显著抑制p38MAPK和ERK的磷酸化以及COX2的表达。这表明小檗碱主要通过调控涉及p38MAPK/ERK-COX2途径的炎症及血管生成基因来实现其生物学功能。本研究证明了小檗碱的抗肿瘤作用及其可能机制,为治疗NASH-HCC提供了一种潜在药物。