Aims: Honokiol is a natural product extracted from herbal plants such as the Magnolia species which have been shown to exhibit anti-tumor and anti-metastatic properties. However, the effects of honokiol on thyroid cancers are largely unknown.
Materials and methods: To determine whether honokiol might be useful for the treatment of thyroid cancer and to elucidate the mechanism of toxicity of honokiol, we analyzed the impact of honokiol treatment on differential protein expression in human thyroid cancer cell line ARO using lysine-labeling two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) combined with mass spectrometry (MS).
Key findings: This study revealed 178 proteins that showed a significant change in expression levels and also revealed that honokiol-induced cytotoxicity in thyroid cancer cells involves dysregulation of cytoskeleton, protein folding, transcription control and glycolysis.
Significance: Our work shows that combined proteomic strategy provides a rapid method to study the molecular mechanisms of honokiol-induced cytotoxicity in thyroid cancer cells. The identified targets may be useful for further evaluation as potential targets in thyroid cancer therapy.
Keywords: 2D-DIGE; Honokiol; MALDI-TOF; Proteomics; Thyroid cancer.
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