Garcinol Alone and in Combination With Cisplatin Affect CellularBehavior and PI3K/AKT Protein Phosphorylation in Human Ovarian CancerCells

摘要

Garcinol is a plant-derived compound that has some physiological benefits tohuman cells. However, the effect of garcinol on ovarian cancer (OC) cellproliferation and apoptosis is unknown. The current study aimed to examine theeffects of garcinol alone and in combination with cisplatin (DDP) on cellularbehavior and to explore the expression pattern of PI3K/AKT and nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB) in human OC cells. We found that OVCAR-3 cell viability was decreasedafter garcinol treatment. Garcinol alone and in combination with DDPsignificantly inhibited cell proliferation and had a synergistic effectevaluated by CompuSyn software. The cell cycle analysis showed the S phasearrest by garcinol. Furthermore, garcinol alone and in combination with DDPpromoted cell apoptosis. The garcinol-induced apoptosis was further confirmed bythe detection of cleavage forms of PARP and caspase 3. An increase inproapoptotic factor Bax expression was also found in garcinol-treated cells.Moreover, garcinol significantly decreased the phosphorylation of PI3K and AKTproteins and downregulated the expression of NF-κB. Thus, our data demonstratedthat garcinol has the potential to be used as an anticancer agent and maysynergize the effect of DDP. These actions are most likely through theregulation of the PI3K/AKT and NF-κB pathways.