Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is among the most frequently occurring cancers worldwide. Baicalin is isolated from the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis and is its dominant flavonoid. Anticancer activity of baicalin has been evaluated in different types of cancers, especially in CRC. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the contribution of baicalin to the treatment of CRC are still unknown. Here, we confirmed that baicalin can effectively induce and enhance apoptosis in HT-29 cells in a dose-dependent manner and suppress tumour growth in xenografted nude mice. We further performed a miRNA microarray analysis of baicalin-treated and untreated HT-29 cells. The results showed that a large number of oncomiRs, including miR-10a, miR-23a, miR-30c, miR-31, miR-151a and miR-205, were significantly suppressed in baicalin-treated HT-29 cells. Furthermore, our in vitro and in vivo studies showed that baicalin suppressed oncomiRs by reducing the expression of c-Myc. Taken together, our study shows a novel mechanism for anti-cancer action of baicalin, that it induces apoptosis in colon cancer cells and suppresses tumour growth by reducing the expression of c-Myc and oncomiRs.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide[1]
Cells were treated with various concentrations of baicalin (0–600 μM) and cell viability tests were analyzed by the standard cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay method. (B) Cell viability of HT-29 cells treated with 150 μM baicalin for 0, 12, 24, 36 and 48 h was measured by CCK-8 assay. (C) Flow cytometric analysis of baicalin-induced apoptosis in HT-29 cells and percentage of apoptotic cells
To explore whether baicalin inhibits cell viability through the induction of apoptosis, we examined the effect of baicalin on apoptosis of HT-29 cells
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide[1]. In the United States, it was estimated that there were 132,700 newly diagnosed CRC cases as well as 49,700 CRC-related deaths in 20152, which underscores the need to develop more efficient or complementary treatment[3,4]. Baicalin (5, 6-dihydroxy-7-O-glucuronide flavone) is a predominant flavonoid isolated from the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (Huang Qin) with a defined chemical constitution[12,13] and various pharmacological activities, including anti-oxidative, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV and anti-proliferative activities[14,15,16,17,18]. It has beneficial effects in the treatment of several cancers, including CRC5. The deregulation of various miRNAs is related to tumour diagnosis and prognosis, illustrating that they might provide important references for clinical applications[30,31,32]
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