Anti-cancer potential of polysaccharide extracted from hawthorn (Crataegus.) on human colon cancer cell line HCT116 via cell cycle arrest and apoptosis

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jff.2019.103677
• Publication Date: 2019-12-05T05:56:10Z
• Authors: Lei Ma; Guanying Bianca Xu; Xinyu Tang; Cheng Zhang; Wen Zhao; Jie Wang; Hong Chen
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; Nutrition. Foods and food supply; Phospho-AKT; Proliferation; TX341-641; Homogeneous polysaccharide; Cell cycle; MAPK; Colon cancer; 3. Good health

This study demonstrated that a homogeneous polysaccharide (HPS) extracted from Hawthorn exerted anti-cancer effects on colon cancer cells. Human colon cancer cell line HCT116 were treated with 125–1000 µg/mL HPS for 12 h and subsequent analysis was performed on proliferation and signaling pathways. HPS significantly inhibited proliferation of HCT116 cells when analyzed using WST-1 assay and immunofluorescence staining of Ki-67. Flow cytometric studies revealed that HPS could arrest the cell cycle in the S and G2/M phases and increase the rate of apoptosis. HPS downregulated the expression of Cyclin A1/D1/E1 and CDK-1/2. HPS induced apoptosis on HCT116 cells through upregulation of caspase3, 7, 8, 9 and Fas, FADD, TNF-R1, TRADD, upregulation of caspase3 protein was also observed. HPS has an anti-cancer potential in the treatment of human colon cancer which makes it a potential candidate in functional foods for cancer patients.