The Effective Analysis for Blue Honeysuckle Extract in the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Chun-Peng Zhang; Wei-Hua Li; Jia-Ren Liu; Guo-Dong Li; Hao-Peng Zhang; Jiu-Feng Wei; Hong-Sheng Chen; Jin-Lu Zhao; Yun-Feng Wang; Qiang Lv; Ming Liu

doi:10.1155/2022/9601020

The Effective Analysis for Blue Honeysuckle Extract in the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022 Sep 29:2022:9601020. doi: 10.1155/2022/9601020. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Chun-Peng Zhang^{1

2}, Wei-Hua Li³, Jia-Ren Liu⁴, Guo-Dong Li², Hao-Peng Zhang², Jiu-Feng Wei², Hong-Sheng Chen², Jin-Lu Zhao², Yun-Feng Wang⁵, Qiang Lv¹, Ming Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, China.
² Department of General Surgery & Bio-Bank of General Surgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
³ Medical Imaging Department, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital-The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen 518035, China.
⁴ Department of Laboratory Diagnosis, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
⁵ Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Heilongjiang Provincial Tumor Hospital, Harbin 150081, China.

Abstract

To further determine how BHE affected the growth of HCC cells, the proportion of each cell cycle phase was explored in HCC cells by flow cytometry. Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea L.) is a species of bush that grows in eastern Russia. Blue honeysuckle extract (BHE) is rich in bioactive phytochemicals which can inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells. The mechanism underlying the anticancer activity of BHE in primary liver cancer is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the growth inhibition mechanism of bioactive substances from blue honeysuckle on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and to explore its protein and gene targets. The compounds in BHE were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) assay was used to evaluate the effects of BHE on HCC cell proliferation, and flow cytometry assay (FCA) was used to determine how BHE arrested the proportion of each cell cycle phase in HCC cells. Western blot (WB) was performed to determine the expression of cell cycle-related proteins in HCC cells treated with different concentrations of BHE. The xenograft tumor animal models were established by HCC cell implantation. The results showed that cyanidin-3-o-glucoside and cyanidin-3-o-sophoroside which are the main biologically active components were detected in BHE. BHE is highly effective in inhibiting the proliferation of HCC cells by arresting the HCC cell cycle in the G2/M phase. BHE also downregulated the expression of conventional or classical dendritic cells-2 (cDC2) and cyclin B1 by promoting the expression of myelin transcription factor 1 (MyT1) in HCC cells. The weight and volume of xenografts were significantly decreased in the BHE treated groups when compared to the control group. BHE increased the expression of MyT1 in xenograft tissues. These findings showed that blue honeysuckle extract inhibits proliferation in vivo and in vitro by downregulating the expression of cDC2 and cyclin B1 and upregulating the expression of MyT1 in HCC cells.