Marine Sponge-Derived Alkaloid Induces Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Inhibits the PI3K/AKT/mTOR Signaling Pathway against Burkitt's Lymphoma

J Nat Prod. 2023 Jan 27;86(1):45-51. doi: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.2c00673. Epub 2022 Dec 16.

Abstract

Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) has a particularly extremely poor prognosis and the fastest growth rate among human tumors, and the development of new drugs for the treatment of BL is urgently needed. In this study, the cytotoxic properties of 3,7-bis(3,5-dimethylphenyl)-aaptamine (AP-51), a new semisynthetic alkaloid derived from the marine natural product aapatamine, were investigated using BL cell lines. Our results showed that AP-51 inhibited the proliferation of Daudi and Raji cells with IC50 values of 3.48 and 2.07 μM, respectively. Flow cytometry and Western blot analyses showed that AP-51 initiated G0/G1 phase arrest by modulating the expression of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). AP-51 also induced apoptosis, as demonstrated by nuclear fragmentation, downregulation of BCL-XL and Mcl-1, and upregulation of cleaved caspase-9, cleaved caspase-3, cleaved-PARP, and cytochrome c, the markers of apoptosis regulated via the mitochondrial pathway. When it comes to mitochondria, AP-51 treatment also significantly increased the levels of intracellular mitochondrial superoxide, decreased ATP content, and reduced the expression of ATP synthase, as well as the expression of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes. Finally, AP-51 treatment significantly inhibited the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, which was shown to be associated with the induction of apoptosis. Collectively, these findings indicated that AP-51 initiated cell cycle arrest, induced apoptosis, caused mitochondrial dysfunction, and decreased the phosphorylation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway-related proteins and the protein levels of C-MYC, suggesting that AP-51 has therapeutic potential as a possible treatment for Burkitt's lymphoma.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenosine Triphosphate
  • Alkaloids* / pharmacology
  • Alkaloids* / therapeutic use
  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents* / pharmacology
  • Antineoplastic Agents* / therapeutic use
  • Apoptosis
  • Burkitt Lymphoma* / drug therapy
  • Burkitt Lymphoma* / metabolism
  • Burkitt Lymphoma* / pathology
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Humans
  • Mitochondria / metabolism
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / metabolism
  • Porifera* / metabolism
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction
  • TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism

Substances

  • Adenosine Triphosphate
  • Alkaloids
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • MTOR protein, human
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt
  • TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
  • AP-51 alkaloid