β-Patchoulene represses hypoxia-induced proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of liver cancer cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant tumor originating from liver epithelial cells with a high clinical mortality rate. β-Patchoulene (β-PAE) is a compound extracted from patchouli, which has analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. This research aims to probe the impacts of β-PAE on hypoxia-induced HCC cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Firstly, hypoxic injury models were constructed in HCC Huh-7 and MHCC97 cells, and the hypoxic injury cell models were then treated with different concentrations of β-PAE. The cell viability, proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis were checked by the cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, colony formation assay, Transwell assay, flow cytometry and terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. The expression of Survivin protein, EMT markers and the NF-κB/HIF-1α pathway was gauged by Western blot (WB) or cellular immunofluorescence or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The in-vivo experiment was conducted to confirm the anti-tumor role of β-PAE. As a result, β-PAE abated hypoxia-induced HCC cell growth, proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT and facilitated apoptosis in vitro and in vivo dose-dependently. Further mechanism studies displayed that β-PAE inactivated the NF-κB/HIF-1α pathway, and HIF-1α activation significantly reversed the β-PAE-mediated tumor inhibition. β-PAE repressed the proliferation and EMT of hypoxia-induced HCC cells by choking the NF-κB/HIF-1α pathway, suggesting that β-PAE was a potential drug for HCC treatment.

Hyperbaric oxygen as an adjuvant to temozolomide nanoparticle inhibits glioma growth by inducing G2/M phase arrest

AIM

To study the effects of combinational treatment of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) and nanotemozolomide in glioma.

MATERIALS & METHODS

Temozolomide (TMZ)-loaded porous silicon nanoparticles (TMZ/PSi NPs) were prepared. In vitro and in vivo evaluations were performed.

RESULTS

The cell uptake of TMZ/PSi NPs could be tracked by autofluorescence of porous silicon. The concentration of oxygen in tumor was improved and the antitumor rate was increased to 84.2% in the TMZ/PSi NPs combined with HBO group. The viability of hypoxia-induced glioma C6 cells was decreased and cell cycle was arrested at G2/M phase in response to TMZ/PSi NPs treatment with HBO compared with continuous treatment with hypoxia.

CONCLUSION

The combinational treatment of TMZ/PSi NPs and HBO could be a promising therapeutic strategy for glioma.