Heliyon (May 2023)

DMU-212 against EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer via AMPK/PI3K/Erk signaling pathway

  • Xiao-Ping Zhao,
  • Xiao-Li Zheng,
  • Min Huang,
  • Ya-Jia Xie,
  • Xiao-Wen Nie,
  • Ali Adnan Nasim,
  • Xiao-Jun Yao,
  • Xing-Xing Fan

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 5
p. e15812

Abstract

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Although some important advances have been achieved in clinical and diagnosis in the past few years, the management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is ultimately dissatisfactory due to the low overall cure and survival rates. Epidermal growth factor (EGFR) has been recognized as a carcinogenic driver and is a crucial pharmacological target for NSCLC. DMU-212, an analog of resveratrol, has been reported to have significant inhibitory effects on several types of cancer. However, the effect of DMU-212 on lung cancer remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effects and underlying mechanism of DMU-212 on EGFR-mutant NSCLC cells. The data found that the cytotoxicity of DMU-212 on three EGFR-mutant NSCLC cell lines was significantly higher than that of normal lung epithelial cell. Further study showed that DMU-212 can regulate the expression of cell cycle-related proteins including p21 and cyclin B1 to induce G2/M phase arrest in both H1975 and PC9 cells. Moreover, treatment with DMU-212 significantly promoted the activation of AMPK and simultaneously down-regulated the expression of EGFR and the phosphorylation of PI3K, Akt and ERK. In conclusion, our study suggested that DMU-212 inhibited the growth of NSCLCs via targeting of AMPK and EGFR.

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