Berberine Inhibits MDA-MB-231 Cells by Attenuating Their Inflammatory Responses - PubMed (original) (raw)

Berberine Inhibits MDA-MB-231 Cells by Attenuating Their Inflammatory Responses

Lina Zhao et al. Biomed Res Int. 2020.

Abstract

Breast cancer initiation is closely associated with cytokines that can change the inflammatory tumor microenvironment. Compounds extracted from plants have been explored for the possibility of cancer treatment in the recent decades. Berberine is an isoquinoline plant alkaloid with remarkable antioxidant and anti-inflammation roles, which is used in ethnic medicines, including traditional Chinese and North American medicine. In the present study, we investigated the effects of berberine on the malignant tumor cell behaviors in a breast cell line, MDA-MB-231. We found that berberine could not influence the cell viability in normal condition but was able to decrease the cancer cell migration capability in a scratch wound model and accordingly prolong the wound healing time. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that berberine inhibited the increased phosphorylation of c-Jun and c-Fos in these scratched cancer cells. With the cotreatment with LPS, which could boost the expression of cytokines in these cancer cells, berberine significantly reduced the increased expression of TNF-α and IL-6. Meanwhile, we found that berberine inhibited the activation of NF-κ_B by preventing the degradation of I_κ_B_α.

Copyright © 2020 Lina Zhao and Chunhai Zhang.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest to disclose in this study.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

The effects of berberine on the cancer cell viability (24 hours). Data was expressed as mean ± SEM. n = 7.

Figure 2

Figure 2

The effects of berberine on the cancer cell migration in a scratch wound model (48 hours). BBA: berberine (25 _μ_mol/L).

Figure 3

Figure 3

Berberine inhibited the increased expression of c-fos and c-jun in scratched cancer cells. (a) The effect of berberine on the expression of c-fos at 30 min after scratching. (b) The effect of berberine on the expression of c-jun at 30 minutes after scratching. Data was expressed as mean ± SEM. ∗p < 0.05 compared to control; #p < 0.05 compared to scratch (n = 5). BBA: berberine (25 _μ_mol/L); S: scratch.

Figure 4

Figure 4

Berberine inhibited the increased expression of TNF-α and IL-6 in cancer cells exposed to LPS. (a) The effect of berberine on the expression of TNF-α at 6 hours after LPS treatment. (b) The effect of berberine on the expression of IL-6 at 6 hours after LPS treatment. Data was expressed as mean ± SEM. ∗p < 0.05 compared to control; #p < 0.05 compared to LPS (n = 7). BBA: berberine (25 _μ_mol/L).

Figure 5

Figure 5

Berberine inhibited the increased expression of NF-κ_B p65 and prevented the protein loss of I_κ_B_α in cancer cells exposed to LPS. (a) The effect of berberine on the expression of NF-κ_B p65 at 6 hours after LPS treatment. (b) The effect of berberine on the expression of I_κ_B_α at 6 hours after LPS treatment. Data was expressed as mean ± SEM. ∗p < 0.05 compared to control; #p < 0.05 compared to LPS (n = 6). BBA: berberine (25 _μ_mol/L).

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