Volume 11,Issue 2
Experimental Study on the Effect of Modified Tianma Granules on Colorectal Cancer Cell Line HCT116
Objective: To investigate the mechanism of modified Tianma Granules (mTMG) in inducing apoptosis of colorectal cancer HCT116 cells through regulating the PTEN/PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway and enhancing NKG2D expression based on the "toxicity-deficiency" theory of traditional Chinese medicine. Methods: Drug-containing sera were prepared from SD rats administered with mTMG formulations: the blank group (normal saline), detoxification group (detoxification components), tonifying deficiency group (tonic components), and original prescription group (all components). HCT116 cells were treated with 20% drug-containing serum for 48 h. Apoptosis was detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining flow cytometry. CD56 and CD107a expression in NK92 cells were measured by flow cytometry. PTEN and NKG2D protein levels were determined by Western blot. Results: The apoptosis rate in the original prescription group (11.60% ± 1.40%) was significantly higher than that in the blank control group (1.70% ± 0.78%) and blank serum group (2.01% ± 0.04%) (P < 0.05). PTEN expression (0.86 ± 0.11) and NKG2D expression (0.64 ± 0.08) in the original prescription group were significantly higher than those in the blank control group (0.42 ± 0.05 and 0.39 ± 0.04) (P < 0.05). CD56 (5.22% ± 0.34%) and CD107a (15.56% ± 0.49%) expression in the detoxification group were significantly higher than those in the blank control group (1.32% ± 0.33% and 5.48% ± 0.42%) (P < 0.05). Conclusion: mTMG can induce HCT116 cell apoptosis by up-regulating PTEN to inhibit the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and enhancing NKG2D to activate NK cell cytotoxicity, with synergistic effects between detoxification and tonifying deficiency components.
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