Cardamonin Exerts Antitumor Effect on Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Xenografts in Athymic Nude Mice through Inhibiting NF-κβ Pathway
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2020
Abstract
Cardamonin (CADMN) exerts an in vitro antiproliferative and apoptotic actions against human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2). This study aimed to investigate the in vivo anti-tumorigenic action of CADMN against human hepatocellular carcinoma xenografts in an athymic nude mice, as well as to study the molecular docking and safety profile of this compound. Acute toxicity study demonstrated that CADMN is safe and well-tolerated up to 2000 mg/kg in ICR mice. Oral administration of 50 mg/kg/day of CADMN in xenografted nude mice showed a significant suppression in tumor growth as compared to untreated control group without pronounced toxic signs. Immunohistochemistry assay showed downregulation of proliferative proteins such as PCNA and Ki-67 in treated groups as compared to untreated control. Additionally, immunofluorescence analysis showed a significant downregulation in anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein, whereas pre-apoptotic Bax protein was significantly upregulated in nude mice treated with 25 and 50 mg/kg CADMN as compared to untreated mice. The findings also exhibited down-regulation of NF-κB-p65, and Ikkβ proteins, indicating that CADMN deactivated NF-κB pathway. The molecular docking studies demonstrated that CADMN exhibits good docking performance and binding affinities with various apoptosis and proliferation targets in hepatocellular cancer cells. In conclusion, CADMN could be a potential anticancer candidate against hepatocellular carcinoma. Other pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics properties, however, need to be further investigated in depth. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords
Anti-tumorigenesis, cardamonin, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Molecular docking, NF-κB pathway
Divisions
fac_med,InstituteofBiologicalSciences
Funders
FRGS grant (FP103-2019A) from the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (Ref: FRGS/1/2019/SKK10/UM/02/3)
Publication Title
Biomedicines
Volume
8
Issue
12
Publisher
MDPI