Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Elemene inhibits the growth and promotes apoptosis of bladder cancer cells through PTEN-Akt signaling pathway

Yuhan Pei, Yuying He¹, Shen Geng, Cai Tang¹, Jiaxin Dai¹, Zhenshuai Ji¹, Cheng Xie¹, Yunlai Zhi¹, Chengkuan Cai¹, Fanghu Sun

Department of Urology, The Affiliated Lianyungang Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Lianyungang 222061, Jiangsu Province, China;

For correspondence:- Fanghu Sun Email: fhust@163.com

Accepted: 30 April 2023 Published: 30 May 2023

Citation: Pei Y, He Y, Geng S, Tang C, Dai J, Ji Z, et al. Elemene inhibits the growth and promotes apoptosis of bladder cancer cells through PTEN-Akt signaling pathway. Trop J Pharm Res 2023; 22(5):975-979 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v22i5.6

© 2023 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the influence of elemene on growth and apoptotic changes in bladder cancer cells, and the involvement of the phosphatase and tensin homologous protein (PTEN)-serine/threonine kinase (Akt) signal pathway in the process.

Methods: Human bladder cell line SV-HUC-1 and human bladder cancer cell line T24 were randomly assigned to blank control group and elemene groups. Protein expression levels of apoptosis-related factors (Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase-3] and PTEN, Akt, and p-Akt in both cells were determined using western blot assay.

Results: In T24 cells, the protein level of Bcl-2 was significantly higher in elemene group than in blank control, while the protein expression levels of Bax and caspase-3 in elemene group were significantly lower than the corresponding levels in blank control group (p < 0.05). The protein expression of PTEN level in T24 cells was significantly higher in elemene group than in blank control group, while protein expression level of p-Akt was significantly lower in elemene group than in blank control (p < 0.05). The Akt protein expression was comparable in elemene and blank control groups.

Conclusion: Elemene inhibits the growth and enhances apoptosis of bladder cancer cells through a mechanism involving up-regulation of the expression of PTEN and suppression of the expression of p-Akt

Keywords: Elemene, PTEN, Akt, bladder cancer