Anti-proliferative and cytoskeleton-disruptive effects of icariin on HepG2 cells

Icariin ameliorates metabolic syndrome-induced benign prostatic hyperplasia in rats

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is an immense health issue that causes serious complications in aging males including BPH. Icariin (ICA) is a flavonol glycoside that exerts a plethora of pharmacological effects. The present investigation tested the potential of ICA to ameliorate benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) induced by MetS in rats. Animals were allocated to 5 groups in which the first and second groups were kept on water and regular food pellets. MetS was induced in the third, fourth, and fifth groups by keeping the animals on high fructose and salt diets for twelve consecutive weeks. These groups were given vehicle, ICA (25 mg/kg), and ICA (50 mg/kg), respectively. MetS was confirmed by an increase in rats' weight, accumulation of visceral fat, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia. This was accompanied by manifestation of BPH including increased prostate weight, prostate index, and histopathological alterations. Treating the animals with both doses of ICA significantly ameliorated the increase in weight and index of the prostate as well as altered prostate histopathology. In addition, ICA significantly decreased cyclin D1 expression, upregulated Bax, and downregulated Bcl2 mRNA expression. ICA prevented lipid peroxidation, reduced glutathione depletion, and catalase exhaustion, which further lowered markers of prostate inflammation such as interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α. Moreover, ICA prevented the decrease in prostate content of phosphorylated 5'-adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (pAMPK). In conclusion, ICA protects against MetS-induced BPH. This is due to its antiproliferative, proapoptotic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities as well as the activation of AMPK.

Development of an Icariin-Loaded Bilosome-Melittin Formulation with Improved Anticancer Activity against Cancerous Pancreatic Cells

Pancreatic cancer currently represents a severe issue for the entire world. Therefore, much effort has been made to develop an effective treatment against it. Emerging evidence has shown that icariin, a flavonoid glycoside, is an effective anti-pancreatic cancer drug. Melittin, as a natural active biomolecule, has also shown to possess anticancer activities. In the present study, with the aim to increase its effectiveness against cancerous cells, icariin-loaded bilosome-melittin (ICA-BM) was developed. For the selection of an optimized ICA-BM, an experimental design was implemented, which provided an optimized formulation with a particle size equal to 158.4 nm. After estimation of the release pattern, the anti-pancreatic cancer efficacy of this new formulation was evaluated. The MTT assay was employed for the determination of half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50), providing smaller IC50 for ICA-BM (2.79 ± 0.2 µM) compared to blank-BM and ICA-Raw (free drug) against PNAC1, a human pancreatic cancer cell line isolated from a pancreatic carcinoma of ductal cell origin. Additionally, cell cycle analysis for ICA-BM demonstrated cell arrest at the S-phase and pre-G1 phase, which indicated a pro-apoptotic behavior of the new developed formulation. The pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative activity of the optimized ICA-BM against PNAC1 cells was also demonstrated through annexin V staining as well as estimation of caspase-3 and p53 protein levels. It can be concluded that the optimized ICA-BM formulation significantly improved the efficacy of icariin against cancerous pancreatic cells.

Molecular and cellular basis of the anticancer activity of the prenylated flavonoid icaritin in hepatocellular carcinoma

The prenylated flavonoid icaritin (ICT) is currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), based on a solid array of preclinical and clinical data. The antitumor activity originates from the capacity of the drug to modulate several signaling effectors in cancer cells, mainly the estrogen receptor splice variant ERα36, the transcription factors STAT3 and NFκB, and the chemokine receptor CXCR4. Recent studies have implicated additional components, including different microRNAs, the generation of reactive oxygen species and the targeting of sphingosine kinase-1. ICT also engages the RAGE-HMGB1 signaling route and modulates the apoptosis/autophagy crosstalk to promote its anticancer activity. In addition, ICT exerts profound changes on the tumor microenvironment to favor an immune-response. Collectively, these multiple biochemical and cellular characteristics confer to ICT a robust activity profile which can be exploited to treat HCC, as well as other cancers, including glioblastoma and onco-hematological diseases such as chronic myeloid leukemia. This review provides an update of the pharmacological properties of ICT and its metabolic characteristics. It also addresses the design of derivatives, including both natural products and synthetic molecules, such as SNG1153 also in clinical trial. The prenylated flavonoid ICT deserves attention as a multifunctional natural product potentially useful to improve the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Bioactive molecule Icariin inhibited proliferation while enhanced apoptosis and autophagy of rat airway smooth muscle cells in vitro

Icariin is the main active compound extracted from epimedium Flavonoids (EFs) and involved in regulation of cell behaviors (proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy etc.) for many cell types, but the effect of Icariin on airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) is still unknown. The aim of the present study is to examine the role of Icariin on rat ASMCs proliferation, apoptosis and autophagy. CKK8 assay showed that Icariin inhibited rat ASMCs growth in dose-time-dependent manner, and the flow cytometry assay showed that the Icariin interfered with ASMCs cell cycle, when treated with Icariin, S phase shortened while G2 phase extended, cyclin E1 and cyclinA1 gene and protein expression decreased. Next apoptosis was detected, Flow cytometry and TdTmediated dUTP Nick-End Labeling (TUNEL) assay showed that Icariin promoted ASMCs apoptosis, and enhanced apoptosis protein cleaved-caspase-3 expression. Finally, it was found Icariin induced rat ASMCs autophagy, with enhancement expression of autophagy marker LC3 II. In conclusion, Icariin inhibited ASMCs proliferation while promoted apoptosis and autophagy, revealing its potential role in treatment of airway remodeling in asthma.

Increased expression of calponin 2 is a positive prognostic factor in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Calponin 2 plays an important role in regulating actin cytoskeleton, which is critical for cell division and migration. Previous studies have demonstrated that calponin 2 inhibits prostate cancer cell proliferation and metastasis. However, the role of calponin 2 in pancreatic tumor growth, metastasis and patient survival remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the level of calponin 2 is a positive prognostic factor for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Patients with high calponin 2 expression in the tumor presented less lymph node metastasis and longer survival. Knockdown of calponin 2 facilitated pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and metastasis. Further experiments suggested that PI3K/AKT, NF-κB, Vimentin, Fibronectin, Snail and Slug were upregulated and E-cadherin was downregulated after calponin 2 was knocked down, implicating altered functions in PDAC proliferation and metastasis. In addition, we verified that calponin 2 functioned through inhibiting PI3K/AKT and NF-κB pathways. Our study suggests that the upregulation of calponin 2 in PDAC correlates to lower malignancy and presents a novel target for the development of new treatment.

The Anticancer Properties of Herba Epimedii and Its Main Bioactive Componentsicariin and Icariside II

Cancer is one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide. Compounds derived from traditional Chinese medicines have been an important source of anticancer drugs and adjuvant agents to potentiate the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs and improve the side effects of chemotherapy. HerbaEpimedii is one of most popular herbs used in China traditionally for the treatment of multiple diseases, including osteoporosis, sexual dysfunction, hypertension and common inflammatory diseases. Studies show HerbaEpimedii also possesses anticancer activity. Flavonol glycosides icariin and icariside II are the main bioactive components of HerbaEpimedii. They have been found to possess anticancer activities against various human cancer cell lines in vitro and mouse tumor models in vivo via their effects on multiple biological pathways, including cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and metastasis, and a variety of signaling pathways including JAK2-STAT3, MAPK-ERK, and PI3k-Akt-mTOR. The review is aimed to provide an overview of the current research results supporting their therapeutic effects and to highlight the molecular targets and action mechanisms.