1. Solanine Induces Mitochondria-Mediated Apoptosis in Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells
- Author
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Suhui Yu, Hongru Kong, Chunwu Zhang, Hongwei Sun, Mengtao Zhou, Jianming Xie, Yingxiu Wang, Qingshun Zhang, Meng Wang, Chongqing Lv, and Longlong Yang
- Subjects
Solanine ,Article Subject ,lcsh:Medicine ,Apoptosis ,Mitochondrion ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Mice ,Pancreatic cancer ,Cell Line, Tumor ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Cell Proliferation ,General Immunology and Microbiology ,biology ,Cell growth ,Cytochrome c ,lcsh:R ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays ,Mitochondria ,Neoplasm Proteins ,Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ,Pancreatic Neoplasms ,chemistry ,Biochemistry ,Cell culture ,Cancer cell ,Cancer research ,biology.protein ,Research Article - Abstract
Steroid alkaloids have been suggested as potential anticancer compounds. However, the underlying mechanisms of how steroid alkaloids inhibit the tumor growth are largely unknown. Here, we reported that solanine, a substance of steroid alkaloids, has a positive effect on the inhibition of pancreatic cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo. In pancreatic cancer cells and nu/nu nude mice model, we found that solanine inhibited cancer cells growth through caspase-3 dependent mitochondrial apoptosis. Mechanically, solanine promotes the opening of mitochondrial membrane permeability transition pore (MPTP) by downregulating the Bcl-2/Bax ratio; thereafter, Cytochrome c and Smac are released from mitochondria into cytosol to process the caspase-3 zymogen into an activated form. Moreover, we found that the expression of tumor metastasis related proteins, MMP-2 and MMP-9, was also decreased in the cells treated with solanine. Therefore, our results suggested that solanine was an effective compound for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
- Published
- 2014