Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 14, 2017; 23(30): 5538-5548
Published online Aug 14, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i30.5538
Yangzheng Sanjie decoction regulates proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer cells by enhancing let-7a expression
Hai-Xia Deng, Ya-Ya Yu, Ao-Qiang Zhou, Jing-Li Zhu, Li-Na Luo, Wan-Qun Chen, Ling Hu, Geng-Xin Chen
Hai-Xia Deng, Ya-Ya Yu, Ao-Qiang Zhou, Jing-Li Zhu, Li-Na Luo, Geng-Xin Chen, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China
Wan-Qun Chen, Ling Hu, Institute of Gastroenterology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510405, Guangdong Province, China
Wan-Qun Chen, Ling Hu, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510405, Guangdong Province, China
Geng-Xin Chen, Discipline of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine in Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Deng HX performed the majority of experiments and drafted the manuscript; Yu YY conducted the molecular assays and assisted in writing the manuscript; Zhou AQ, Zhu JL and Chen WQ participated in the animal experiments and prepared the drug-containing serum; Luo LN performed the high-performance liquid chromatography analysis; Chen WQ and Hu L collected medical records and tissue specimens; Deng HX and Chen GX designed and coordinated the research, analyzed the data and revised the manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81273735 and No. 81373563; Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China, No. 2016A020215135 and No. 2013B021800169; and The Specific Research Fund for TCM Science and Technology of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, China, No. YN2014ZH05.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (No. 2013050). All operations were performed according to international guidelines concerning the care and treatment of experimental animals.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided written informed consent prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Geng-Xin Chen, MD, PhD, Professor, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, 111 Dade Road, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China. gxchen@gzucm.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-20-81887233-31011 Fax: +86-20-81887233-31011
Received: April 22, 2017
Peer-review started: April 25, 2017
First decision: June 1, 2017
Revised: June 20, 2017
Accepted: July 4, 2017
Article in press: July 4, 2017
Published online: August 14, 2017
Abstract
AIM

To explore the let-7a-mediated anti-cancer effect of Yangzheng Sanjie decoction (YZSJD) in gastric cancer (GC) cells.

METHODS

YZSJD-containing serum (YCS) was prepared using traditional Chinese medicine serum pharmacology methods. After YCS treatment, cell proliferation and apoptosis were assessed by cell counting kit-8 assay and flow cytometry, respectively, and miRNA expression profiles were determined using qPCR arrays. Let-7a expression was examined by in situ hybridization in GC tissues and by qPCR in GC cells. c-Myc protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in GC tissues, and by Western blot in cell lines.

RESULTS

YZSJD significantly inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis in AGS and HS-746T GC cells. After treatment with YCS, the miRNA expression profiles were altered and the reduced let-7a levels in both cell lines were up-regulated, accompanied by a decrease in c-Myc expression. Moreover, decreased let-7a expression and increased c-Myc expression were observed during the progression of gastric mucosa cancerization.

CONCLUSION

YZSJD inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis of GC cells by restoring the aberrant expression of let-7a and c-Myc.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, Let-7a, c-Myc, Proliferation, Apoptosis, Yangzheng Sanjie decoction

Core tip: Let-7a reduction plays an important role in gastric tumourigenesis through the derepression of c-Myc expression. Our data demonstrate that Yangzheng Sanjie decoction (YZSJD) inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in gastric cancer (GC) cells by regulating the aberrant expression of let-7a and c-Myc. These findings provide new evidence that YZSJD has therapeutic potential in GC treatment and that miRNA regulation may be a novel molecular mechanism through which Chinese herbal medicine exhibits anti-cancer activity.