Inhibitory Effect of Liquiritigenin on Migration Via Downregulation ProMMP-2 and PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway in Human Lung Adenocarcinoma A549 cells

Abstract

Liquiritigenin (LQ) is a flavanone extracted from Glycyrrhizae, which has multiple biological effects, such as antiinflammation and anticancer. This study is the first to investigate the effect of LQ on the migration of human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells in vitro. First, LQ exhibited inhibitory effects on the adhesion and migration of A549 cells in the absence of cytotoxicity. Gelatin zymography and Western blot analysis showed that LQ significantly reduced the expression of promatrix metalloproteinase-2 (proMMP-2) in A549 cells in terms of both activity and protein level. Second, LQ inhibited the phosphorylation of Akt and activated the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2). Furthermore, the treatment of inhibitors specific for Akt (LY294002) and ERK1/2 (U0126) to A549 cells resulted in reduced activity of proMMP-2. These results suggested that the inhibition on proMMP-2 expression by LQ may be through suppression on PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, which in turn led to the inhibition of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells migration. However, activation of ERK might not be involved in the regulation of proMMP-2. Taken together, LQ may be considered as a potential interfering agent of cancer progression.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. The authors gratefully thank Dr. Shanshan Geng (Nanjing Medical University, China) and Xiangmei Ren (Xuzhou Medical College, China) for their expert advices and critical reading of the manuscript, Jingjing Ding, Hongxia Liu, and Kang Luo (Nanjing Medical University, China) for technical assistance.