Antitumor activity of the pachymic acid in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the antitumour efficacy of pachymic acid (PA), which is a fungal extract component, on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells CNE-1, CNE-2. Methods: We have chosen NPC cell line CNE-2 for the study, and the cells were treated with PA before the detection. CCK-8 assay was used to detect the proliferative ability, and Annexin V-PI double staining was used for the detection of apoptosis rate; and the nucleus damage was detected by transmission electron microscope, the protein expression of the DNA damage pathway were detected by Western blot. Results: PA can significantly inhibited proliferation of CNE-1, CNE-2 cells. The proportion of apoptotic cells of all cell lines gradually increased in a dose-dependent manner induced by PA, P < 0.05. Meanwhile, the nucleus could be caused morphological changes and the expression of DNA damage-related proteins was upregulated by PA in CNE-2. Conclusions: PA can significantly inhibit cell proliferation and increase the apoptosis rates and may induce the apoptosis of the human NPC cells.

KEYWORDS:

• Pachymic acid
• NPC
• proliferative
• apoptosis
• DNA damage
• TEM

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Science and Technology Plan of Yunnan Province of China (grant number 2014RA072), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81560462), and Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province of China (grant number 2016FB150).

Conflict of interest

None.