Amygdalin Induced Mitochondria-Mediated Apoptosis of Lung Cancer Cells via Regulating NF[Formula: see text]B-1/NF[Formula: see text]B Signaling Cascade in Vitro and in Vivo.

Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Amygdalin, a natural compound commonly distributed in plants of the Rosaceae species, owns anticancer activity, less side effects, wide source, and relatively low price. Although the apoptosis is a central process activated by amygdalin in cancer cells, the underlying molecular mechanisms through which amygdalin induces the apoptosis of lung cancer cells remain poorly understood. In this research work, amygdalin could suppress the proliferation of lung cancer A549 and PC9 cells by CCK8 assay. Amygdalin significantly promoted the apoptosis of lung cancer A549 and PC9 cells stained with Annexin V-FITC/PI by flow cytometry assay. Furthermore, amygdalin dose-dependently decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) with JC-1 dye by flow cytometry. To investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms through which amygdalin induced mitochondria-mediated apoptosis of cancer cells, the differentially-expressed genes with a fold change >2.0 and p < 0.05 were acquired from the cDNA microarray analysis. The results of qRT-PCR further confirmed that the differentially-expressed level of the NF[Formula: see text]B-1 gene was most obviously enhanced in lung cancer cells treated with amygdalin. The results of immunofluorescence staining, Western blotting and siRNA knockdown indicated that amygdalin induced mitochondria-mediated apoptosis of lung cancer cells via enhancing the expression of NF[Formula: see text]B-1 and inactivating NF[Formula: see text]B signaling cascade and further changing the expressions of proteins (Bax, Bcl-2, cytochrome C, caspase 9, caspase 3 and PARP) related to apoptosis, which were further checked by in vivo study of the lung cancer cell xenograft mice model accompanying with immunohistochemical staining and TUNEL staining. Our results indicated that amygdalin might be a potential activator of NF[Formula: see text]B-1, which sheds more light on the molecular mechanism of anticancer effects of amygdalin. These results highlighted amygdalin as a potential therapeutic anticancer agent, which warrants its development as a therapy for lung cancer.

Generation of particle assemblies mimicking enzymatic activity by processing of herbal food: the case of rhizoma polygonati and other natural ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine.

Processed herbs have been widely used in eastern and western medicine; however, the mechanism of their medicinal effects has not yet been revealed. It is commonly believed that a central role is played by chemically active molecules produced by the herbs' metabolism. In this work, processed rhizoma polygonati (RP) and other herbal foods are shown to exhibit intrinsic phosphatase-like (PL) activity bounded with the formation of nano-size flower-shaped assembly. Via quantum mechanical calculations, an enzymatic mechanism is proposed. The enzymatic activity may be induced by the interaction between the sugar molecules distributed on the surface of the nanoassemblies and the phosphatase substrate via either a hydroxyl group or the deprotonated hydroxyl group. Meanwhile, the investigation was further extended by processing some fresh herbs and herbal food through a similar protocol, wherein other enzymatic activities (such as protease, and amylase) were observed. The PL activity exhibited by the processed natural herbs was found to be able to effectively inhibit cancer cell growth via phosphatase signaling, possibly by crosstalk with kinase signaling or DNA damage by either directly binding or unwinding of DNA, as evidenced by high-resolution atomic-force microscopy (HR-AFM). In this work, the neologism herbzyme (herb + enzyme) is proposed. This study represents the first case of scientific literature introducing this new term. Besides the well-known pharmacological properties of the natural molecules contained in herbs and herbal food, there exists an enzymatic/co-enzymatic activity attributed to the nanosized assemblies.