Effects of palmatine hydrochloride mediated photodynamic therapy on oral squamous cell carcinoma

• DOI: 10.1039/c9pp00040b
• Publication Date: 2019-04-27T06:35:13Z
• Authors: Feng Qi; Yi Sun; Moyang Lv; Feng Qin; Wenwu Cao; Liangjia Bi
• Keywords: Mice, Inbred BALB C; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Molecular Structure; Cell Survival; Lasers; Berberine Alkaloids; Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Neoplasms, Experimental; 3. Good health; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Photochemotherapy; Cell Movement; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell; Animals; Humans; Female; Mouth Neoplasms; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Cell Proliferation

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common malignant tumor, accounting for about 7% of all malignant tumors. Palmatine hydrochloride (PaH) is the alkaloid constituent of Fibraurea tinctoria Lour. The present study aims to investigate the antitumor effect of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with PaH (PaH-PDT) on human OSCC cell lines both in vitro and in vivo. The results indicate that PaH-PDT exhibited a potent phototoxic effect in cell proliferation and produced cell apoptosis. PaH-PDT increased the percentage of cells in the G0/G1 phase and decreased the CDK2 and Cyclin E1 protein level. In addition, PaH-PDT markedly increased the generation of intracellular ROS, which can be suppressed using the ROS scavenger N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Furthermore, PaH-PDT increased the expression of p53 protein in vitro and in vivo. In vivo experiments revealed that the PaH-PDT resulted in an effective inhibition of tumor growth and prolonged the survival time of tumor-bearing mice. Moreover, no obvious signs of side effects or a drop in body weight was observed. These results suggested that PaH was a promising sensitizer that can be combined with light to produce significant anti-tumor effects in oral squamous cell carcinoma via enhanced ROS production and up-regulated expression of p53.