Fuling Granule, a Traditional Chinese Medicine Compound, Suppresses Cell Proliferation and TGF[beta]-Induced EMT in Ovarian Cancer

• Published in: PloS one 2016-12, Vol.11 (12), p.e0168892
• Main Authors: Tao, Fangfang, Ruan, Shanming, Liu, Wenhong, Wang, Libin, Xiong, Yang, Shen, Minhe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Care and treatment; Cell proliferation; Ovarian cancer; Risk factors; Traditional Chinese medicine
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168892

The compound fuling granule (CFG) is a traditional Chinese drug which has been used to treat ovarian cancer in China for over twenty years. Nevertheless, the underlying molecular mechanism of its anti-cancer effect remains unclear. In this study, microarray data analysis was performed to search differentially expressed genes in CFG-treated ovarian cancer cells. Several cell cycle and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related genes were identified. The microarray analyses also revealed that CFG potentially regulates EMT in ovarian cancer. We also found that, functionally, CFG significantly suppresses ovarian cancer cell proliferation by cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and senescence and the AKT/GSK-3[beta] pathway is possibly involved. Additionally, the invasion and migration ability of ovarian cancer induced by TGF[beta] is significantly suppressed by CFG. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that CFG suppresses ovarian cancer cell proliferation as well as TGF[beta]1-induced EMT in vitro. Finally, we discovered that CFG suppresses tumor growth and distant metastasis in vivo. Overall, these findings provide helpful clues to design novel clinical treatments against cancer.