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Inhibitory effects of norcantharidin against human lung cancer cell growth and migration

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Abstract

The effects of norcantharidin (NCTD), an anticancer drug in China, on the growth and migration in human lung cancer cells were investigated by in vitro and ex vivo assays. NCTD significantly inhibited the in vitro and ex vivo growth of human non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells in dose- and time-dependent manners. Western blot analysis indicated that NCTD dose-dependently down-regulated the expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and up-regulated the level of pro-apoptotic protein Bax, eventually leading the reduction of ratio of Bcl-2/Bax proteins in A549 cells. Moreover, NCTD significantly suppressed the A549 cell migration in the case of without reducing the cell viability. More importantly, NCTD significantly enhanced the anticancer activity of anticancer agents such as trichostatin A (the histone deacetylase inhibitor), celecoxib (the inhibitor of cyclooxygenase-2) and lovastatin (the inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase) by strongly reducing the viability and/or the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax protein in A549 cells. Our findings suggest that NCTD may have the wide therapeutic and/or adjuvant therapeutic application in the treatment of human lung cancer.

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Abbreviations

NCTD:

Norcantharidin

T:

Trichostatin A

S:

Celecoxib

luo:

Lovastatin

NSCLC:

Non-small cell lung cancer

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China to G.Z, from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China to G.Z, Projects of Yantai University to GZ, Project from the National Natural Science Foundation of China to GZ (No. 30973553), and grants from the Department of Science and Technology of Shandong Province to GZ (Y2008C71; 2009GG10002087).

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Correspondence to Guoying Zhang.

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Jinling Luan and Huiying Duan contributed equally to this work.

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Luan, J., Duan, H., Liu, Q. et al. Inhibitory effects of norcantharidin against human lung cancer cell growth and migration. Cytotechnology 62, 349–355 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-009-9250-8

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