Context: The persistent use of anticancer medicines can cause multidrug resistance in many tumors and serious cytotoxicity for healthy cells, including adriamycin (ADR), a treatment for breast cancer (BC). Cell resistance to ADR in patients with recurrent advanced BC can occur. Creating effective treatments that can grapple with multidrug resistance is still challenging. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) may offer a solution in D Rhamnose beta-hederin (DRβ-H), an oleanane type of triterpenoid saponin.
Objective: The study intended to assess the ability of DRβ-H to inhibit the ADR resistance of two BC-lineage cell lines, MCF-7 and SUM-1315, and to explore the causal link between DRβ-H and the reversal of chemoresistance.
Design: The research team performed a cell biology study.
Setting: The study took place at laboratory in China.
Outcome measures: The research team: (1) assessed cell viability and the migration and invasion the cell lines; (2) investigated the molecular mechanism and identified the downstream targets of DRβ-H, and (3) comprehensively examined the expression pattern, underlying functions, and evident prognostic significance of NAP1L5 in BC by gathering the online information available.
Results: DRβ-H can inhibit the viability of the MCF-7/ADR and SUM-1315/ADR cancer cells in a dosage-dependent manner. NAP1L5 might be the main target of DRβ-H in reversing ADR resistance. Its expression decreased in BC cells, and the more advanced the BC was, the lower the NAP1L5 expression was.
Conclusion: DRβ-H at nontoxic concentrations was related to ADR resistance in BC through its downstream target NAP1L5. NAP1L5 is potentially a preferable prognostic marker for BC.