Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Licoflavanone exerts anticancer effects on human nasopharyngeal cancer cells via caspase activation, suppression of cell migration and invasion, and inhibition of m-TOR/PI3K/AKT pathway

Jun Liu¹ , Chengyi Song², Zhuoping Liang¹, Xiang Long², Min Guo², Jianle Xu¹

¹Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery; ²Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan 646000, China.

For correspondence:- Jun Liu Email: liujunluzhou@163.com Tel:+868303165641

Accepted: 18 June 2021 Published: 29 July 2021

Citation: Liu J, Song C, Liang Z, Long X, Guo M, Xu J. Licoflavanone exerts anticancer effects on human nasopharyngeal cancer cells via caspase activation, suppression of cell migration and invasion, and inhibition of m-TOR/PI3K/AKT pathway. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(7):1387-1393 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i7.10

© 2021 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 study the anticancer effect of licoflavanone against human nasopharyngeal HKI carcinoma, and the mechanism involved.

Methods: The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to determine the effect of licoflavanone on cell viability, while DAPI staining and western blotting were used to study its proapoptotic effect. Morphological examination was performed under phase contrast microscopy. Transwell chamber assays were used to study cell migration and invasion. The expression levels of mTOR/PI3K/AKT signal pathway-related proteins were assayed by Western blotting.

Results: Licoflavanone markedly suppressed the proliferation of nasopharyngeal HK1 cancer cells in a concentration-reliant pattern (p < 0.01). The anticancer effects of licoflavanone were mediated via induction of pro-apoptotic effects and blocking of mTOR/PI3K/AKT signal pathway. Licoflavanone enhanced the activities of caspase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9 and cleaved caspase-3, as well as Bax and Bad. Moreover, licoflavanone blocked the migration and invasion of HK1 nasopharyngeal cancer cells.

Conclusion: Licoflavanone exerts potent anticancer effects on human nasopharyngeal cancer cells via caspase activation, inhibition of cell migration and cell invasion, and down-regulation of m-TOR/PI3K/AKT signal pathway. Therefore, licoflavanone may be a useful lead drug for the development of a treatment strategy for nasopharyngeal cancer.

Keywords: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Flavonoids, Apoptosis, Caspase, Cell migration, Cell invasion