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Volume 11,Issue 2

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23 June 2026

Celastrol Inhibits Proliferation and Metastatic Potential and Induces Apoptosis in ARID1A-Deficient Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Xinhong Chen1*
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1 School of Gongli Hospital Medical Technology, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
JMDS 2026 , 11(2), 22–28; https://doi.org/10.18063/JMDS.v11i2.1990
© 2026 by the Author. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

Objective: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still challenging to treat due to its high recurrence rate and high metastasis rate. New effective therapeutic drugs urgently need to be developed. Celastrol is a small-molecule compound from traditional Chinese medicine with broad-spectrum anti-tumor activity, but its mechanism of action on ARID1A KO NSCLC has not been fully studied. This study systematically investigated the in vitro antitumor effects of Celastrol on the human NSCLC cell line A549. Methods: The CCK-8 assay was used to assess cell proliferation; wound-healing and Transwell assays evaluated cell migration and invasion, respectively; Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining, combined with flow cytometry, measured cell apoptosis. Results: Celastrol significantly inhibited A549 cell proliferation in a dose- and time-dependent manner, reducing cell viability to approximately 40% at 4 μM after 24 h. The wound-healing and Transwell experiments demonstrated that, compared with the control group, triptolide significantly inhibited cell migration and invasion; flow cytometry showed that the total apoptosis rate of the cells increased significantly after triptolide treatment. Conclusion: Celastrol effectively inhibits A549 cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, and induces apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. These findings have confirmed the potential of Celastrol as a new candidate drug for the treatment of ARID1A KO NSCLC, and have provided reliable in vitro evidence for subsequent mechanism studies and in vivo research.

Keywords
NSCLC
ARID1A
Celastrol
Migration
Apoptosis
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