• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.188-193
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• 2018

The aim of the current study was to demonstrate the potential therapeutic efficacy of resveratrol in oral cancer patients. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) intensifies cancer cell invasion and metastasis, whereas resveratrol, a natural polyphenolic compound, possesses antitumor activity, suppressing cell proliferation and progression in various cancer cell lines (ovarian, gastric, oral, pancreatic, colon, and prostate cancer cells). In addition, resveratrol has been identified as an inhibitor of LPA-induced proteolytic enzyme expression and ovarian cancer invasion. Furthermore, resveratrol was shown to inhibit oral cancer cell invasion by downregulating hypoxia-inducible factor $1{\alpha}$ and vascular endothelial growth factor expression. Recently, we demonstrated that LPA is important for the expression of transcription factors TWIST and SLUG during epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in oral squamous carcinoma cells. In this study, we treated serum-starved cultures of oral squamous carcinoma cell line YD-10B with resveratrol for 24 hours prior to stimulation with LPA. To identify an optimal resveratrol concentration that does not induce apoptosis in oral squamous carcinoma cells, we determined the toxicity of resveratrol in YD-10B cells by assessing their viability using the MTT assay. Another assay was performed using Matrigel-coated cell culture inserts to detect oral cancer cell invasion activity. Immunoblotting was applied for analyzing protein expression of SLUG, TWIST1, E-cadherin, and GAPDH. We demonstrated that resveratrol efficiently inhibited LPA-induced oral cancer cell EMT and invasion by downregulating SLUG and TWIST1 expression. Therefore, resveratrol may potentially reduce oral squamous carcinoma cell invasion and metastasis in oral cancer patients, improving their survival outcomes. In summary, we identified new targets for the development of therapies against oral cancer progression and characterized the therapeutic potential of resveratrol for the treatment of oral cancer patients.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2012

Bee venom (BV) has been used in medicine to treat a variety of diseases including arthritis, rheumatism, and various cancers. Recent reports indicate that BV has anti-angiogenic effects, but the precise molecular mechanism underlying the effects of BV against colorectal cancer remains to be elucidated. We examined the effects of BV and its major components (melittin and apamin) on tumor angiogenesis and found that BV significantly decreased protein levels of hypoxia-inducible factor-$1{\alpha}$ (HIF-$1{\alpha}$), an important factor involved in angiogenesis and tumor progression, in human colorectal carcinoma HCT116 cells. BV also suppressed the transcription of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ under hypoxia, leading to a decrease in the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a major target gene of HIF-$1{\alpha}$. We also found that these effects were mainly elicited by apamin, but not melittin. BV specifically inhibited the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 without changing the total levels of this protein, but had no effect on kinases of p38/JNK and AKT. Our results suggest that BV may inhibit human colorectal cancer progression and angiogenesis by inhibiting HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and VEGF expression, thereby providing a novel potential mechanism for the anticancer action of BV.