Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most malignant cancers with high mortality. Therefore, it is of great urgency to develop new agents that could improve the prognosis of Pancreatic cancer patients. Chinese propolis (CP), a flavonoid-rich beehive product, has been reported to have an anticancer effect. In this study, we applied CP to the human Pancreatic cancer cell line Panc-1 to verify its impact on tumor development. CP induced apoptosis in Panc-1 cells from 12.5 µg/mL in a time- and dose-dependent manner with an IC50 value of approximately 50 µg/mL. Apoptosis rate induced by CP was examined by Annexing FITC/PI assay. We found that 48 h treatment with 50 µg/mL CP resulted in 34.25 ± 3.81% apoptotic cells, as compared to 9.13 ± 1.76% in the control group. We further discovered that the Panc-1 cells tended to be arrested at G2/M phase after CP treatment, which is considered to contribute to the anti-proliferation effect of CP. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that CP suppressed Panc-1 cell migration by regulating epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). Interestingly, the Hippo pathway was activated in Panc-1 cells after CP treatment, serving as a mechanism for the anti-pancreatic cancer effect of CP. These findings provide a possibility of beehive products as an alternative treatment for pancreatic cancer.
Highlights
Pancreatic cancer, a gastrointestinal malignant tumor, is one of the most aggressive cancers with an overall 5-year survival rate lower than 10% [1]
Duan et al found that caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), which is the main constituent of Chinese propolis, suppressed the growth of pancreatic cancer in vitro [37]
In conclusion, our study discovered an anti-tumor effect of Chinese propolis (CP) on pancreatic cancer cells in vitro
Summary
Pancreatic cancer, a gastrointestinal malignant tumor, is one of the most aggressive cancers with an overall 5-year survival rate lower than 10% [1]. The high mortality rate of pancreatic cancer is mainly ascribed to the difficulty in the early-stage diagnosis and the lack of efficient treatment. Lacking specific symptoms making it difficult to diagnose pancreatic cancer at an early stage [9], resulting in a situation that most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage with high metastases [10] and diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma [11]. Surgical resection is considered the only curative treatment for pancreatic cancer, but only 20% of patients are suitable for it [12]. Even those patients who have undergone resection have a high risk of recurrence [13]. It is urgent to discover novel therapeutic methods to treat pancreatic cancer
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