Matrine Intensifies the Sensitivity of Cisplatin in NPC Cells via mTOR-Mediated Autophagy

Haiyan Wang, Hanqing Lin, Tao Zhang and Haiying Jia

Background and Objective: Matrine plays a crucial role in suppressing tumour growth, while the contribution of matrine combining Cisplatin (DDP) to regulate Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) remains unelaborated. Herein, This study demonstrated that matrine could attenuate NPC cells proliferation and accelerate its apoptosis. Materials and Methods: CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, TUNEL assay and western blot were performed to examine the effect of matrine on the proliferation and apoptosis of NPC cells. Wound healing assay and transwell assay were applied to test the role of matrine on the migration of NPC cells. Furthermore, the activation of the mTOR signalling pathway by the combination of matrine and DDP were verified by the western blot and immunofluorescence staining. Student’s t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used for the statistical tests. Results: To reveal the fundamental mechanism, we noticed that matrine caused the upregulation of apoptosis-related protein C-caspase-3, autophagy indicator LC3-II and the activation of the mTOR signalling pathway and meanwhile induced the down regulation of PCNA, survivin and p62, which could be further intensified by applying DDP. Conclusion: To summarize, our findings suggested that matrine could enhance the sensitivity of DDP against NPC through mTOR-mediated autophagy, which provided a novel route for the therapy of NPC.

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