Department of Abdominal Ultrasonography, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Department of Ultrasonic Imaging, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.
DNA Cell Biol. 2020 Mar;39(3):355-367. doi: 10.1089/dna.2019.4990. Epub 2020 Jan 8.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the sixth most common malignancy worldwide, is characterized by a dismal prognosis due to high recurrence and metastasis rates. Thus, the need for the development of novel chemotherapeutic drugs is urgent. Cyclovirobuxine D (CVB-D), a steroidal alkaloid extracted from that has been extensively used to relieve the symptoms of cardiovascular diseases, has shown promising antineoplastic effects in recent studies. However, the therapeutic effects and underlying mechanisms of CVB-D on HCC remain largely unelucidated. This study experimentally indicated that CVB-D can repress HCC cell proliferation by arresting the cell cycle in G2 phase and can facilitate apoptosis. In addition, the migratory and invasive capabilities of HCC cells were noticeably attenuated by a nonlethal dose of CVB-D, and this attenuation was correlated with the inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Moreover, , CVB-D displayed excellent anticancer effects in HCC tumor-bearing nude mice. Regarding the molecular mechanisms of CVB-D activity, decreased expression was determined to be associated with the aforementioned anti-HCC functions of this extract, which might be regulated by epidermal growth factor receptor () through the focal adhesion kinase ()-associated and signaling pathways. Collectively, our results revealed the suppressive effects of CVB-D on progressive behaviors of HCC, including proliferation, migration, invasion, and EMT, in addition to its outstanding proapoptotic effects, which were correlated with the inhibition of the signaling pathway. These discoveries provide an experimental and theoretical foundation for the use of CVB-D as a promising candidate for HCC therapy.
肝细胞癌(HCC)是全球第六大常见恶性肿瘤,由于复发和转移率高,预后较差。因此,迫切需要开发新的化疗药物。环维黄杨星 D(CVB-D)是一种从黄杨科植物中提取的甾体生物碱,已广泛用于缓解心血管疾病的症状,最近的研究表明其具有有希望的抗肿瘤作用。然而,CVB-D 对 HCC 的治疗效果和潜在机制在很大程度上仍未阐明。本研究实验表明,CVB-D 可以通过将细胞周期阻滞在 G2 期来抑制 HCC 细胞增殖,并促进细胞凋亡。此外,非致死剂量的 CVB-D 可明显减弱 HCC 细胞的迁移和侵袭能力,这种减弱与上皮间质转化(EMT)的抑制有关。此外,CVB-D 在 HCC 荷瘤裸鼠中显示出优异的抗癌作用。关于 CVB-D 活性的分子机制,发现 表达降低与该提取物的上述抗 HCC 功能有关,这可能通过表皮生长因子受体(EGFR)通过粘着斑激酶(FAK)相关的 和 信号通路来调节。总之,我们的结果揭示了 CVB-D 对 HCC 进行性行为的抑制作用,包括增殖、迁移、侵袭和 EMT,以及其出色的促凋亡作用,这与抑制 信号通路有关。这些发现为将 CVB-D 用作 HCC 治疗的有前途的候选药物提供了实验和理论基础。