Polyphenol mixtures of Euphorbia supina the inhibit invasion and metastasis of highly metastatic breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells

Oncol Rep. 2015 Dec;34(6):3035-42. doi: 10.3892/or.2015.4304. Epub 2015 Sep 22.

Abstract

The Korean prostrate spurge Euphorbia supina is abundant in polyphenols and has been used as a folk medicine in Korea against a variety of diseases. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effect of polyphenol mixtures of Korean Euphorbia supina (PES) on the invasion and metastasis of highly metastatic breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. Firstly, PES showed no cytotoxicity on cancer cells and endothelial cells (ECs) at the doses of 0.1-10 µg/ml, but showed significant cytotoxicity from 50 µg/ml. Thus, we performed subsequent experiments with PES at doses up to 5 µg/ml. PES dose‑dependently suppressed epithelial-mesenchymal transition by downregulating the mesenchymal markers, Snail1 and N-cadherin, showing significant inhibition from 1 and 5 µg/ml, respectively. In addition, PES significantly inhibited MMP-9 activity and LOX release induced by TNF-α at 5 µg/ml. Then, we determined the effect of PES on the expression of adhesion molecules and VE-cadherin phosphorylation. The results showed that PES effectively reduced TNF-α-mediated VCAM-1 expression but not ICAM expression both in the MDA-MB-231 cells and ECs, resulting in the reduced adhesion of MDA-MB-231 to ECs. Finally, PES effectively inhibited MDA-MB-231 cell invasion through ECs, suggesting that PES may serve as a therapeutic agent against cancer metastasis with minimal cytotoxicity to normal cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Breast Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Breast Neoplasms / genetics
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation / drug effects*
  • Endothelial Cells / drug effects
  • Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / drug effects
  • Euphorbia / chemistry
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / drug effects
  • Humans
  • Neoplasm Invasiveness / genetics
  • Neoplasm Metastasis
  • Neoplasm Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Phosphorylation / drug effects
  • Plant Extracts / administration & dosage*
  • Plant Extracts / chemistry
  • Polyphenols / administration & dosage*
  • Polyphenols / chemistry

Substances

  • Neoplasm Proteins
  • Plant Extracts
  • Polyphenols