β-Elemene induces apoptosis and autophagy in colorectal cancer cells through regulating the ROS/AMPK/mTOR pathway

• 作者: WANG Guo-Yu ZHANG Lei GENG Ya-Di WANG Bin FENG Xiao-Jun CHEN Zhao-Lin WEI Wei JIANG Ling
• 来源期刊: 中国天然药物
• 学科: 医学
• 年，卷（期）: 2022,（1）
• 所属期刊栏目: Research articles
• 页码范围: 9-21
• 页数: 13页
• 分类号: R965
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1016/S1875-5364(21)60118-8

摘要

β-Elemene is an effective anti-cancer ingredient extracted from the genus Curcuma (Zingiberaceae familiy).In the present study,we demonstrated that β-elemene inhibited the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells and induced cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase.In addition,β-elemene induced nuclear chromatin condensation and cell membrane phosphatidylserine eversion,de-creased cell mitochondrial membrane potential,and promoted the cleavage of caspase-3,caspase-9 and PARP proteins,indicating ap-optosis in colorectal cancer cells.At the same time,β-elemene induced autophagy response,and the treated cells showed autophagic vesicle bilayer membrane structure,which was accompanied by up-regulation of the expression of LC3B and SQSTM1.Furthermore,β-elemene increased ROS levels in colorectal cancer cells,promoted phosphorylation of AMPK protein,and inhibited mTOR protein phosphorylation.In the experiments in vivo,β-elemene inhibited the tumor size and induced apoptosis and autophagy in nude mice.In summary,β-elemene inhibited the occurrence and development of colon cancer xenografts in nude mice,and significantly induced ap-optosis and autophagy in colorectal cancer cells in vitro.These effects were associated with regulation of the ROS/AMPK/mTOR sig-naling.We offered a molecular basis for the development of β-elemene as a promising anti-tumor drug candidate for colorectal cancer.