[Effect of Carvacrol on the Biological Behavior of Leukemia Cells and Its Mechanism].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of carvacrol on the biological behavior of leukemia cells and its regulation to circ-0008717/miR-217 molecular axis. METHODS: Human acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells Molt-4 were cultured in vitro, and different concentrations of carvacrol were added to the cells. si-NC and si-circ-0008717 were transfected into Molt-4 cells (si-NC group, si-circ-0008717 group). pcDNA, pcDNA-circ-0008717, anti-miR-NC, anti-miR-217 were transfected into Molt-4 cells and then added to carvacrol-treated cells (carvacrol+pcDNA group, carvacrol+pcDNA-circ-0008717 group, carvacrol+anti-miR-NC group, carvacrol+anti-miR-217 group). MTT, plate clone formation experiment, and flow cytometry were used to detect the viability of the cell, colony formation number, and apoptosis rate of cells, respectively. The RT-qPCR method was used to detect the expression levels of circ-0008717 and miR-217. The dual luciferase reporter gene experiment was used to detect the targeting relationship between circ-0008717 and miR-217. RESULTS: After carvacrol treatment, the cell viability decreased significantly (r=-0.9405), expression level of circ-0008717 decreased (r=-0.9117), colonies formed number decreased (r=-0.9256), while the cell apoptosis rate increased (r= 0.8464), and the expression level of miR-217 increased (r=0.9468). Compared with the si-NC group, the expression level of miR-217 in si-circ-0008717 group increased (P＜0.001), the cell apoptosis rate increased (P＜0.001), while cell viability decreased (P＜0001), the number of colonies formed decreased (P＜0.001). Compared with the carvacrol+pcDNA group, the cell viability of the carvacrol+pcDNA-circ-0008717 group increased (P＜0.001), the number of colonies formed increased (P＜0.001), while the cell apoptosis rate decreased (P＜0.001). circ-0008717 could target miR-217. The cell viability of the carvacrol+anti-miR-217 group increased (P＜0.001), and the number of colonies formed increased (P＜0.001), while the cell apoptosis rate decreased (P＜0001) as compared with the carvacrol+anti-miR-NC group. CONCLUSION: Carvacrol can promote the expression of miR-217 by down-regulating the expression of circ-0008717, thereby reducing the proliferation and cloning ability of leukemia cells and promoting cell apoptosis.