Traditional Banxia Xiexin decoction inhibits invasion, metastasis, and epithelial mesenchymal transition in gastric cancer by reducing lncRNA TUC338 expression

Xiaojun Dai; Yanwei Yu; Chen Zou; Bo Pan; Haibo Wang; Shanshan Wang; Xiaojuan Wang; Chenghai Wang; Dongmei Liu; Yanqing Liu

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21064

Traditional Banxia Xiexin decoction inhibits invasion, metastasis, and epithelial mesenchymal transition in gastric cancer by reducing lncRNA TUC338 expression

Heliyon. 2023 Oct 20;9(11):e21064. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21064. eCollection 2023 Nov.

Authors

Xiaojun Dai^{1

2

3}, Yanwei Yu³, Chen Zou³, Bo Pan³, Haibo Wang³, Shanshan Wang¹, Xiaojuan Wang³, Chenghai Wang⁴, Dongmei Liu^{5

6}, Yanqing Liu^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Clinical College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yangzhou University, 577 Wenchang Middle Road, Yangzhou, 225002, China.
² Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Yangzhou, 577 Wenchang Middle Road, Yangzhou, 225002, China.
³ Medical School, Yangzhou University, 136 Jiangyang Middle Road, Yangzhou, 225001, China.
⁴ Department of Pathology, The Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou University, 368 Hanjiang Middle Road, Yangzhou, 225009, China.
⁵ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, 180 Siwangting Road, Yangzhou, 225002, China.
⁶ Jianghai Polytechnic College, 5 Yangzijiang South Road, Yangzhou, 225002, China.

Abstract

Background: Banxia Xiexin decoction (BXD) is a classic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula clinically used to treat chronic gastritis, gastric ulcers, gastric cancer, and many other gastrointestinal diseases. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play an important role in maintaining the malignant phenotype of tumors. However, no relevant studies have shown whether Banxia Xiexin decoction regulates and controls lncRNA TUC338, and the effect of TUC338 on the regulation of gastric cancer invasion and metastasis remains unclear.

Purpose: To investigate the ability of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Banxia Xiexin decoction (BXD) to inhibit the migration and invasion of human gastric cancer AGS cells by regulating the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) TUC338.

Methods: UHPLC‒MS/MS was used to analyze the chemical components of BXD. MTT was performed to determine the effects of BXD on the proliferation of AGS cells. qRT‒PCR was used to determine the expression of lncRNA TUC338 in gastric cancer tissues, paracarcinoma tissues, AGS human gastric cancer cells and GES-1 normal gastric mucosa cells and to evaluate the effects of BXD on the expression of lncRNA TUC338 in AGS cells. Lentiviral transfection was used to establish human gastric cancer AGS cells with knocked down lncRNA TUC338 expression. The effects of lncRNA TUC338 knockdown on the migration and invasion of AGS cells were observed by a scratch assay and Transwell migration assay, respectively. Western blotting was performed to analyze the effects of lncRNA TUC338 knockdown on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in AGS cells. We performed quality control on three batches of BXD. We used UHPLC‒MS/MS to control the quality of three random batches of BXD used throughout the study.

Results: Ninety-five chemical components were identified from the water extract of BXD, some of which have anticancer effects. The expression of TUC.338 in gastric cancer tissues was higher than that in para-carcinoma tissues. BXD inhibited the invasion and migration of gastric cancer cells by inhibiting the expression of lncRNA TUC338, which reduced EMT. After knockdown of lncRNA TUC338, the migration and invasion of AGS cells were reduced; the expression of the EMT-related protein E-cadherin was increased, and the expression of N-cadherin and vimentin was reduced.

Conclusions: The present results suggest that BXD has potential as an effective treatment for gastric cancer through the inhibition of lncRNA TUC338 expression.

Keywords: Banxia Xiexin decoction; Epithelial mesenchymal transition; Gastric cancer; Knockdown LncRNA TUC338; Migration and invasion; TCM.