Sanjie Yiliu Formula Inhibits Colorectal Cancer Growth by Suppression of Proliferation and Induction of Apoptosis

Rong Zhu Tang; Zhang Zhi Li; Dan Hu; Fariha Kanwal; Cheng Bin Yuan; Muhammad Mustaqeem; Aima Iram Batool; Muhammad Fayyaz Ur Rehman

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c05565

Sanjie Yiliu Formula Inhibits Colorectal Cancer Growth by Suppression of Proliferation and Induction of Apoptosis

ACS Omega. 2021 Mar 9;6(11):7761-7770. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c05565. eCollection 2021 Mar 23.

Authors

Rong Zhu Tang¹, Zhang Zhi Li², Dan Hu³, Fariha Kanwal⁴, Cheng Bin Yuan^{5

6}, Muhammad Mustaqeem⁷, Aima Iram Batool⁸, Muhammad Fayyaz Ur Rehman⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gastroenterology, Seventh People's Hospital of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, NO.358, Datong Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai 200137, P. R. China.
² Department of Hematology, Taihe Hospital Affiliated to the Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China.
³ Department of Neurology, The Central Hospital of Xiaogan, Xiaogan, Hubei 432100, P. R. China.
⁴ Med-X Research Institute, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 201620, P. R. China.
⁵ Department of Critical Care Medicine, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai 200080, P. R. China.
⁶ School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200025, P. R. China.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, University of Sargodha, Sub-Campus Bhakkar, Bhakkar 30000, Pakistan.
⁸ Department of Zoology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan.
⁹ Institute of Chemistry, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan.

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. As current therapies toward CRC, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, pose limitations, such as multidrug resistance (MDR) as well as the intrinsic and potential cytotoxic effects, necessitating to find more effective treatment options with fewer side effects, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has an advantage in complementary therapies. In the present study, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiozol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT assays), trypan blue staining, colony formation, 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride (DAPI) staining, cell cycle determination, and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining were used to examine the efficacy of Sanjie Yiliu Formula (SJYLF) against CRC proliferation and to investigate its underlying molecular mechanisms through protein expression of various proapoptotic factors by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) and Western blotting. This four-herb-TCM SJYLF can be suggested as one of the decoctions clinically effective in late-stage cancer treatment. Our results suggest that SJYLF robustly decreased the viability of only CRC cell lines (HCT-8, SW-480, HT-29, and DLD-1) and not the normal human kidney cells (HK-2). Moreover, SJYLF significantly suppressed proliferation and induced apoptosis in HCT-8 and downregulated cyclin D1, CDK4, and BCL-2, while Bax expression was upregulated at both mRNA and protein expression levels.