Involvement of the mitochondrial pathway and Bim/Bcl-2 balance in dihydroartemisinin-induced apoptosis in human breast cancer in vitro

• DOI: 10.3892/ijmm.2012.1176
• Publication Date: 2012-11-08T06:47:16Z
• Authors: HAITING MAO; HONGTAO GU; XUN QU; JINTANG SUN; BINGFENG SONG; WENJUAN GAO; JIA LIU; QIANQIAN SHAO
• Keywords: Dihydroartemisinin

Dihydroartemisinin (DHA), a semi-synthetic derivative and active metabolite of artemisinin, has been shown to have profound anticancer potential in addition its strong anti-malarial activity. The purpose the present study was thoroughly investigate anti-neoplastic effects induced by DHA provide molecular basis for use treatment breast cancer. Our results demonstrated that could significantly inhibit cell proliferation cancer dose- time-dependent manner associated with apoptosis G0/G1 cycle arrest, half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) were 60.03, 33.86 17.18 µM 24, 48 72 h, respectively. Moreover, dramatically increased protein expression caspase-8, cleaved caspase-9, activated Bid release cytochrome c from mitochondria into cytosol. In addition, apoptotic action pro-apoptotic gene Bim decreased anti-apoptotic Bcl-2. Therefore, mitochondrial pathway is involved cells imbalance Bim/Bcl-2 interaction may promote beneficial effect against cells. Overall, our provides scientific rationale clinical usage