Triptonide Inhibits the Cervical Cancer Cell Growth via Downregulating the RTKs and Inactivating the Akt-mTOR Pathway

The high incidence and mortality of cervical cancer (CC) require an urgent need for exploring novel valuable therapeutics. Triptonide (TN) is a small molecule monomer extracted from the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. Our results showed that TN, at only nanomolar concentrations, strongly i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity 2022, Vol.2022, p.8550817-20
Main Authors: Zhou, Li-na, Peng, Shi-qing, Chen, Xue-Lian, Zhu, Xiao-ren, Jin, An-qi, Liu, Yuan-yuan, Zhu, Li-xia, Zhu, Ya-qun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cancer therapies
Cell cycle
Cell growth
Cervical cancer
Chemotherapy
Cytotoxicity
Epidermal growth factor
Ethics
Fibroblasts
Glucose
Kinases
Medical prognosis
Metastasis
Penicillin
Review boards
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The high incidence and mortality of cervical cancer (CC) require an urgent need for exploring novel valuable therapeutics. Triptonide (TN) is a small molecule monomer extracted from the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. Our results showed that TN, at only nanomolar concentrations, strongly inhibited growth, colony formation, proliferation, migration, and invasion of established and primary human cervical cancer cells. TN induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in cervical cancer cells. Moreover, cervical cancer cell in vitro migration and invasion were suppressed by TN. It was however noncytotoxic and proapoptotic to normal cervical epithelial cells and human skin fibroblast cells. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of RNA sequencing data of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in TN-treated cervical cancer cells implied that DEGs were enriched in the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling and PI3K-Akt-mTOR cascade. In cervical cancer cells, RTKs, including EGFR and PDGFRα, were significantly downregulated and Akt-mTOR activation was largely inhibited after TN treatment. In vivo, oral administration of TN significantly inhibited subcutaneous cervical cancer xenograft growth in nude mice. EGFR and PDGFRα downregulation as well as Akt-mTOR inactivation was detected in TN-treated HeLa xenograft tumor tissues. Thus, TN inhibits human cervical cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Its anticervical cancer activity was associated with RTK downregulation and Akt-mTOR inactivation.
ISSN:1942-0900
1942-0994
1942-0994
DOI:10.1155/2022/8550817