Ivalin Inhibits Proliferation, Migration and Invasion by Suppressing Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition in Breast Cancer Cells

Abstract

Ivalin, an eudesmane-type sesquiterpene compound, was isolated from the Chinese herb Carpesium divaricatum in our chemistry group. In this study, we investigated the anti-migration and anti-invasion activities and underlying mechanisms of Ivalin in breast cancer cells in vitro. Cell viability was evaluated using the MTT assay, Western blotting was used to determine the expression of E-cadherin, N-cadherin, vimentin and ZEB1, and mRNA levels were analyzed by qPCR. The anti-migration and anti-invasion effects of Ivalin were measured by wound-healing and Transwell assays. In this connection, Ivalin treatment reduced the mRNA and protein expressions of ZEB1 as well as N-cadherin and vimentin expression in various breast cancer cells. E-cadherin expression was enhanced by Ivalin in the same cells, which implied that Ivalin depressed the process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Our results revealed that Ivalin significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion in breast cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner in vitro. This study suggests that Ivalin may merit further investigation as a potential therapeutic leading compound for the treatment of breast cancer migration and invasion.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by grants from the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (PCSIRT, No IRT_17R68), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DUT17RC(3)075) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81273532, Nos. 31741048).