Furanodiene, a natural product, inhibits breast cancer growth both in vitro and in vivo.

PURPOSE: Previous studies have reported that the Curcuma wenyujin Y.H. Chen et C. Ling extract, which has a high furanodiene content, showed anti-cancer effects in breast cancer cells in vitro. The present study was designed to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo anti-cancer activity of furanodiene.

METHODS: The in vitro effects of furanodiene were examined on two human breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Assays of proliferation, LDH release, mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), cell cycle distribution, apoptosis and relevant signaling pathways were performed. The in vivo effect was determined with MCF7 tumor xenograft model in nude mice.

RESULTS: Furanodiene significantly inhibited the proliferation and increased the LDH release in both cell lines in a dose-dependent manner. ΔΨm depolarization, chromatin condensation, and DNA fragmentation were also observed after furanodiene treatment. Furanodiene dose-dependently induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. The protein expressions of p-cyclin D1, total cyclin D1, p-CDK2, total CDK2, p-Rb, total Rb, Bcl-xL, and Akt were significantly inhibited by furanodiene, whereas the protein expressions of Bad and Bax, and the proteolytic cleavage of caspase-9, caspase-7, and poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) were dramatically increased. Furthermore, the z-VAD-fmk markedly reversed the furanodiene-induced cell cytotoxicity, the proteolytic cleavage of caspase-9, and DNA fragmentation but did not affect the proteolytic cleavage of PARP, whereas the Akt inhibitor VIII increased the furanodiene-induced cytotoxicity and PARP cleavage. In addition, furanodiene dose-dependently suppressed the tumor growth in vivo, achieving 32% and 54% inhibition rates after intraperitoneal injection of 15 mg/kg and 30 mg/kg, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, we concluded that furanodiene suppresses breast cancer cell growth both in vitro and in vivo and could be a new lead compound for breast cancer chemotherapy.