Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the anti-proliferative effect of puerarin on retinoblastoma cells. Methods: The effect of puerarin was examined on human retinoblastoma Y79 cells using cell proliferation assays and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The effect of puerarin on the cell cycle was also investigated. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses were also performed to identify the putative mechanism of action. Results: The results showed that cell viability was suppressed by puerarin in a concentrationdependent manner with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) of 0.184 ± 0.034 μmol/L. Moreover, puerarin increased the proportion of cells in G1 phase from 42.6 ± 3.1 to 62.83 ± 4.1, 75.76 ± 3.4 and 91.33 ± 5.1 % in a concentration-dependent manner at concentrations of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 μmol/L, respectively. The results also indicate that Bmi-1 mRNA and protein levels decreased after puerarin treatment. Additionally, flow cytometry data showed that Bmi-1 knock-down through siRNA resulted in G1-cell cycle arrest. The proportion of cells in G1 were 51.2 ± 2.5 and 71.4 ± 4.5 % for control and Bmi-1 siRNA-treated groups, respectively. Conclusions: The results show that puerarin exert suppressive effects on human retinoblastoma Y79 cells and therefore may find application in the treatment of intraocular tumor. Keywords: Cancer, Puerarin, Retinoblastoma Y79 cells, mTOR inhibition, Intraocular tumor
Highlights
Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases known to mankind, and despite improvements in treatment remains a leading cause of death worldwide [1,2]
We investigated the effect of puerarin on the proliferation of human retinoblastoma Y79 cells
The cells were fixed, nuclear DNA was stained with propidium iodide (PI), and flow cytometry was used to determine the population of cells in each cell cycle stage
Summary
Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases known to mankind, and despite improvements in treatment remains a leading cause of death worldwide [1,2]. Natural products or derivatives are often good sources of agents that associated are with numerous biological activities [7]. These derivatives have high therapeutic activity due to their high chemical and molecular diversity. Out of the millions of naturally occurring compounds, only a few have been developed for use as cancer therapies [9]. These include vinca alkaloids [10], paclitaxel, docetaxel [11], etoposide, teniposide [12], and camptothecin and camptothecin derivatives, topothecan, irinothecan [13], and anthracycline [14]
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