Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Anticancer effect of a combination of cisplatin and matrine on cervical cancer U14 cells and U14 tumor-bearing mice, and possible mechanism of action involved

Aihong Yang¹ , Jun Zhu¹, Feixue Xu¹, Jiao Yang¹, Ying Wang¹, Min Wei¹, Xuefei Bai², Yongxiu Yang¹

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Key Laboratory of Gynecologic Oncology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China; ²Department of Gynecology, Gansu Provincial Cancer Hospital, Lanzhou, Gansu 730050, PR China.

For correspondence:- Aihong Yang Email: aihongyang1@msn.com Tel:+869312115364

Accepted: 26 July 2021 Published: 31 August 2021

Citation: Yang A, Zhu J, Xu F, Yang J, Wang Y, Wei M, et al. Anticancer effect of a combination of cisplatin and matrine on cervical cancer U14 cells and U14 tumor-bearing mice, and possible mechanism of action involved. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(8):1631-1638 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i8.12

© 2021 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the anticancer effects of cisplatin (DDP) in combination with matrine on cervical cancer U14 cell tumor-bearing mice.

Methods: The cell proliferation of cervical cancer U14 cells treated with DDP (25, 20, 15, 10 and 5 μg/mL); matrine (2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0 and 0.5 mg/mL); or DDP (15 μg/mL) + matrine (2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0 and 0.5 mg/mL) was determined with MTT assay. The anticancer effect of DDP + matrine in U14 tumor-bearing mice was also investigated, based on expression of tumor suppressor lung cancer 1 (TSLC1) using quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry.

Results: The inhibition of proliferation of U14 cells ranged from 26.68–70.25, 10.20–61.73, and 51.89–89.75 % for DDP, matrine and DDP + matrine, respectively. In mice with U14 solid tumors, the DDP group had 12.3 % weight loss (p < 0.05). Treatment with DDP, matrine, and DDP + matrine reduced tumor growth by 64.56, 42.22–56.67, and 67.78–81.11 %, respectively (p < 0.01). Results from RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry showed corresponding increases in expression levels of TSLC1.

Conclusion: These results indicate that the anticancer activity of DDP + matrine is higher than that of a single treatment with either DPP or matrine. The likely mechanism of action might be related to promotion of TSLC1 expression. This finding provides a potential strategy for the management of cervical cancer.

Keywords: Cervical cancer, Cisplatin, Matrine, Anticancer activity, Combined chemotherapy, Natural products