Selective anti-proliferation of HER2-positive breast cancer cells by anthocyanins identified by high-throughput screening

PLoS One. 2013 Dec 3;8(12):e81586. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081586. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Overexpressed Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) drives the biology of 20% breast cancer and is a prediction of a poor prognosis for patients. HER2-targeted therapies significantly improve outcomes for HER2-positive patients. Traditional Chinese herbs/medicines have been used to treat breast cancer patients including HER2-positive patients in Asia for decades. Although the traditional medicines demonstrate efficacy in clinics for HER2-positive patients, the mechanism is largely unknown. In this article, we screened a 10,000 natural product library in 6 different cell lines representing breast cancer, and assessed the ability of each drug to cause cytotoxicity through a high-throughput screening approach. We have identified eight natural compounds that selectively inhibit the proliferation of HER2-positive cells. Two of the hit compounds, peonidin-3-glucoside and cyaniding-3-glucoside, are both extracts from black rice. They inhibit the phospho-HER2 and phospho-AKT and were confirmed to induce HER2-psotive breast cancer cells apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo. Peonidin-3-glucoside and cyaniding-3-glucoside treatments significantly reduced the tumor size and volume in vivo compared to the control group. There is no significant difference of antitumorgenic effects between peonidin-3-glucoside and cyaniding-3-glucoside treatments.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Anthocyanins / pharmacology*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Apoptosis / drug effects
  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation / drug effects
  • Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor
  • Female
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays*
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / metabolism*
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Substances

  • Anthocyanins
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • ERBB2 protein, human
  • Receptor, ErbB-2

Grants and funding

This work is supported by Sichuan Province Health Bureau (110465) and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81273074). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.