Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (Oct 2012)

Chelerythrine chloride from Macleaya cordata induces growth inhibition and apoptosis in human gastric cancer BGC-823 cells

  • Zhengfu Zhang,
  • Ying Guo,
  • Lingwei Zhang,
  • Jianbin Zhang,
  • Xionghui Wei

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2011.12.013
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 5
pp. 464 – 471

Abstract

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This study aimed to investigate the ability of chelerythrine chloride (CHE), the main active ingredient of Macleaya cordata, to induce apoptosis in human gastric cancer BGC-823 cells. The results demonstrate that CHE inhibits cell proliferation in a time- and dose-dependent manner with accompanying S phase arrest. It also induces apoptosis by a mechanism involving a reduction in the mitochondrial membrane potential, the release of cytochrome c, activation of caspase 3 and cleavage of poly-ADP-ribose polymerase. In addition, CHE-induced apoptosis is accompanied by down-regulation of Bcl-xl and Bcl-2 proteins with no change in the levels of Bax proteins. Taken together, the results support the development of CHE as a potentially useful anticancer drug for the treatment of gastric cancer.

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