The Anti-tumor Function Of Three Medicinal Plants Of Saussureae Lappae,siegesbeckia Pubescens And Euphorbia Esula

Objective Despite remarkable progress in the discovery and development of novel cancer therapeutics,cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the world.Nowadays,surgery,radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the three main ways to treat cancer.In addition,the research to obtain high efficacy,low toxicity of drug from the traditional Chinese medicine has become a hot spot.The purpose of this study was to define the role of dehydrocostuslactone(DE)on gastric cancer cells and to explore its mechanism of action.The activities of Siegesbeckia pubescens(SP)and Euphorbia esula(E.esula)against hepatocellular carcinoma and related mechanisms were explored.Methods In this paper,400 kinds of Chinese herbal medicine were screened from the library of South-Central University for Nationalities,we found that Saussurea lappa,Siegesbeckia pubescens and Euphorbia esula have showed promising anti-tumor activity.DE was isolated from the petroleum ether extract using preparative High Performance Liquid Chromatography(HPLC).The oil extracts from E.esula(EEEO)and SP(SPEO)were prepared by hydro-distillation.The main chemical components of DE,EEEO and SPEO were identified by Hydrogen spectrum,carbon spectrum or GC-MS.The growth inhibition was analyzed by MTT assay.Hoechst 33258 and fluorescence microscopy were utilized to observe the nuclear morphological changes of apoptotic cells.Flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis,cell cycle and reactive oxygen species(ROS)level.The expressions of the target proteins were detected by Western blotting.Results Tumor cells were treated with different concentrations of DE,SPEO and EEEO in vitro,and then evaluated with respect to cell viability,proliferation,cell apoptosis,and levels of ROS and anti-apoptotic proteins.We found that DE significantly inhibited antiapoptosis in a dose-or time-dependent manner.DE reduced the expression of GRP78,Bcl-2,p PI3 K and p AKT,increased the expression of caspases-3,caspases-7,caspases-9 and caspases-12,and promoted the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells.In the present study,we found that SPEO obviously inhibited the proliferation of Hep G2 cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner.SPEO activated a series of apoptotic proteins,increasing expression levels of Bax,caspase-3 and caspase-9,and decreasing the bcl-2 expression level.Our studies showed that EEEO decreased cell viability,elevated ROS levels,and induced apoptosis of Hep G2 cells in a concentration-and time-dependent manner.Furthermore,expression of Bcl-2 was down-regulated,while Bax expression was up-regulated as indicated by Western blotting analysis.Conclusions The result suggested that DE plays a potent role in gastric cancer in multiple biological aspects through PI3K/Akt signaling pathway,Mitochondrial pathway and Endoplasmic reticulum stress pathway.This finding surely adds new knowledge to understand the role of DE in fighting cancers.SPEO displayed promising anti-hepatocellular carcinoma activity in vitro,partly by inducing apoptosis in Hep G2 cells through activating the mitochondrial pathway.These results suggest that EEEO induced apoptosis of Hep G2 cells via ROS generation,which was likely mediated by the mitochondrial pathway.