News Release

A potential drug for liver carcinoma

Peer-Reviewed Publication

World Journal of Gastroenterology

Looking for efficient anti-tumor drugs is a hot research area. Chrysin (5,7-dihydroxy flavone), a natural widely-distributed flavonoid, has been reported to have many different biological activities such as anti-oxidant, anti-virus, antidiabetogenic activity and clear anxiolytic effect. However, Chrysin is limited in its clinical application because of its modest absorption in the intestine and rapid in vivo glycosylation. To improve the biological activity of chrysin, a number of its derivatives have been prepared for biological testing. 5-allyl-7-gen-difluoromethylenechrysin (ADFMChR) is one of them.

A research team led by Dr. Jian-Guo Cao from China investigate the anti-tumor effect of ADFMChR in vitro. Their study will be published on May 14, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

In their study, HepG2 cells and L-02 cells were cultured and the inhibitory effect of ADFMChR on their proliferation was measured by MTT assay. The apoptosis of HepG2 cells was determined by flow cytometry using propidium iodide fluorescence staining. The influence of ADFMChR on the proxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), NF-κB, Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression of HepG2 cells were analyzed by Western blotting.

They found that ADFMChR significantly inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner, with little effect on growth of L-02 cells. Western blotting analysis revealed that after 24 h of treatment with 3.0, 10.0, 30.0 μmol/L ADFMChR, PPARγ and Bax protein expression increased but Bcl-2 and NF-κB expression decreased in HepG2 cells; however, pre-incubation with 10.0 μmol/L GW9662, a blocker of PPARγ, could efficiently antagonize and weaken the regulatory effect of 3.0, 30.0 μmol/L ADFMChR on PPARγ and NF-κB protein expression in HepG2 cells.

This finding may provide a molecular basis for the clinically observed cancer-preventive effects of ADFMChR and new clues for research about pharmaceutical prevention and cure of human liver carcinoma.

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Reference: Tan XW, Xia H, Xu JH, Cao JG. Induction of apoptosis in human liver carcinoma HepG2 cell line by 5-allyl-7-gendifluoromethylenechrysin. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(18): 2234-2239 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/2234.asp

Correspondence to: Dr. Jian-Guo Cao, Laboratory of Medicine Engineering, Medical College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410006, Hunan Province, China. caojianguo2005@yahoo.com.cn

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H. pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

About The WJG Press

The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.


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