Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jan 28;11(2):415-24.
doi: 10.4314/ajtcam.v11i2.28. eCollection 2014.

Protopine inhibits heterotypic cell adhesion in MDA-MB-231 cells through down-regulation of multi-adhesive factors

Kai He  1 , Jian-Li Gao  2
Affiliations

Protopine inhibits heterotypic cell adhesion in MDA-MB-231 cells through down-regulation of multi-adhesive factors

Kai He et al. Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. .

Abstract

Background: A Chinese herb Corydalis yanhusuo W.T. Wang that showed anticancer and anti-angiogenesis effects in our previous studies was presented for further studies. In the present study, we studied the anticancer proliferation and adhesion effects of five alkaloids which were isolated from Corydalis yanhusuo.

Materials and methods: MTT dose response curves, cell migration assay, cell invasion assay, as well as three types of cell adhesive assay were performed on MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells. The mechanism of the compounds on inhibiting heterotypic cell adhesion were further explored by determining the expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), αv-integrin, β1-integrin and β5-integrin by western blotting assay.

Results: In five tested alkaloids, only protopine exhibited anti-adhesive and anti-invasion effects in MDA-MB-231 cells, which contributed to the anti-metastasis effect of Corydalis yanhusuo. The results showed that after treatment with protopine for 90 min, the expression of EGFR, ICAM-1, αv-integrin, β1-integrin and β5-integrin were remarkably reduced.

Conclusion: The present results suggest that protopine seems to inhibit the heterotypic cell adhesion between MDA-MB-231 cells, and human umbilical vein endothelial cells by changing the expression of adhesive factors.

Keywords: Adhesion; Breast cancer; Corydalis yanhusuo; Integrins; Protopine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cell proliferation assay (MTT assay). (A) The anti-proliferation effect of Corydalis yanhusuo extract on 4 human cancer cell lines and 1 normal human cell line. (B) Effect of protopine to the cell viability of HL-60 cancer cells for 48 h treatment. The result was measured by MTT assay from three independent experiments (n=12). Each value represents the mean ± S.D. of the results.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The morphologic changes of MDA-MB-231 cells after exposed to 100 µM protopine for 24 h. Images were observed under the light microscope (50× and 400× magnification).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of protopine on cell invasive and migration abilities in MDA-MB-231 cells. Each value represents the mean ± S.D. of the results from three independent experiments (n=9). **p < 0.01 vs. the vehicle control (0.1% DMSO).
Figure 4
Figure 4
The cell adhesion index of MDA-MB-231 cells after treatment with protopine for 90min. Each value represents the mean ± S.D. of the results from three independent experiments (n=12). **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05 vs. the vehicle control (0.1% DMSO).
Figure 5
Figure 5
The effects of the protopine and Corydalis yanhusuo extract on ICAM-1, EGFR and integrins expression. Malignant human breast carcinoma cells were incubated with the protopine (1, 10, 100 µM) and Corydalis yanhusuo extract (3, 10, 30 µg/ml) for 90 min.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bae DS, Kim YH, Pan CH, Nho CW, Samdan J, Yansan J, Lee JK. Protopine reduces the inflammatory activity of lipopolysaccharide-stimulated murine macrophages. BMB reports. 2012;45:108–113. - PubMed
    1. Cahlikova L, Kucera R, Host'alkova A, Klimes J, Opletal L. Identification of pavinane alkaloids in the genera Argemone and Eschscholzia by GC-MS. Natural product communications. 2012;7:1279–1281. - PubMed
    1. Chen CH, Liao CH, Chang YL, Guh JH, Pan SL, Teng CM. Protopine, a novel microtubule-stabilizing agent, causes mitotic arrest and apoptotic cell death in human hormone-refractory prostate cancer cell lines. Cancer letters. 2012;315:1–11. - PubMed
    1. Chen YZ, Liu GZ, Shen Y, Chen B, Zeng JG. Analysis of alkaloids in Macleaya cordata (Willd.) R. Br. using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Journal of chromatography A. 2009;1216:2104–2110. - PubMed
    1. Gao JL, Chen ZF, Shi JM, Wang YT, Lv GY. Content Determination of 5 Kinds of Alkaloids in Corydalis yanhusuo and Stability Study. China Pharmacy. 2012;23:1386–1388.

Publication types

MeSH terms