Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Radio-sensitizing effect of ethyl caffeate on nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cell line

Hai Yuan¹ , Aiguo Han³, Xiufeng Zhang²

¹Department of Otorhinolaryngol; ²Department of Oncology, Rizhao Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Rizhao 276800; ³Department of Clinical Laboratory, The 5th People's Hospital of Jiâ€™nan, Ji'nan 250021, PR China.

For correspondence:- Hai Yuan Email: yuanhaierb@yeah.net Tel:+86633929095

Received: 28 March 2017 Accepted: 22 July 2017 Published: 31 August 2017

Citation: Yuan H, Han A, Zhang X. Radio-sensitizing effect of ethyl caffeate on nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cell line. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(8):1857-1863 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i8.15

© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the radio-sensitizing effect of ethyl caffeate (ETF) on naso-pharyngeal carcinoma.

Methods: MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was used to evaluate the cell viability of CNE-2 cells, while their levels of caspase-3 and caspase-9 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In addition, a xenograft model was established in nude mice. The model was treated with ETF (40 mg/kg) and subjected to β-irradiation (10 Gy) for 28 days, during which tumor volume was determined at 4-day intervals. expressions of caspase-3, caspase-9 and Bcl-2 were determined by western blotting assay.

Results: β-irradiation (10 Gy) did not produce any obvious inhibitory effect on the proliferation of CNE-2 cells. However, ETF (10, 20 and 40 μg/mL) significantly enhanced the radiosensitivity of the cells to β-irradiation (p < 0.01) and significantly increased their levels of caspase-3 and caspase-9 (p < 0.01). The combination of ETF (40 mg/kg) with β-irradiation resulted in significant inhibition of tumor growth in mice xenograft model (p < 0.01). The combined treatment also resulted in significant up-regulation of expressions of caspase-3 and casepase-9 and significant down-regulation of Bcl-2 in the tumor tissues when compared with corresponding tissues from the control mice (p < 0.01).

Conclusion: ETF significantly enhances the sensitivity of naso-pharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cells to β-irradiation, probably through induction of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. ETF may be useful for treating naso-pharyngeal carcinoma in combination with radiation therapy.

Keywords: Ethyl caffeate, Radio-sensitizing effects, Caspase, Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, CNE-2 cell line, ^6;-irradiation