Flavopereirine Inhibits Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Growth by Inducing Cell-cycle Arrest, Apoptosis, and Autophagy-related Protein Expression

Abstract

Background/Aim: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary malignancy of the liver. Resistance to chemotherapy and side-effects remain a challenge for treating advanced and recurrent HCC. Therefore, there is an emerging need to develop new drugs to treat HCC. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the anti-growth activity of flavopereirine in HepG2 and Huh7 HCC cell lines. Cell viability, cell-cycle profile, apoptosis, and autophagy-related protein expressions were analysed after flavopereirine treatment. Results: Flavopereirine treatment induced G₀/G₁ cell-cycle arrest, with an increase of sub-G₁ cells detected at the higher concentration and longer exposure to flavopereirine in HCC cells. Intrinsic and extrinsic pathways were involved in flavopereirine-induced apoptosis, as demonstrated by an increase of cleaved caspase 8 and 9 by western blotting. An alteration of autophagy-related protein expression was also found after flavopereirine treatment. Conclusion: Taken together, the current results indicate that flavopereirine exhibits good anticancer activity in HCC cells.