Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 23 pp 25365—25376
Anemoside B4 sensitizes human colorectal cancer to fluorouracil-based chemotherapy through src-mediated cell apoptosis
- 1 Department of Gastroenterology, The 901 Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force, Hefei 230031, Anhui, China
Received: January 16, 2021 Accepted: August 11, 2021 Published: December 10, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203751How to Cite
Copyright: © 2021 He et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Currently, 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) based chemotherapy is the primary option for colorectal cancer after surgery, whereas chemotherapy resistance related mortality is observed in a large proportion of patients. Anemoside B4 (AB4) is a triterpene saponin, which exhibits a considerable activity in oncotherapy. In this study, we explored the efficacy of AB4 in FU-based chemotherapy in colorectal cancer cells and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Our results indicated a significant synergistic activity of AB4 in 5-FU treated colorectal cancer cells. Furthermore, AB4 treatment eliminated colorectal cancer stem cells by promoting apoptotic cell death in 5-FU resistant colorectal cancer cells. Mechanically, AB4 activated caspase-9 pathway in 5-FU resistant colorectal cancer cells. Elevated Src activity induced cell apoptosis and cancer stem cells elimination effects in AB4 treated colorectal cancer cells. In conclusion, AB4 showed promising sensitization effect in the FU-based chemotherapy of colorectal cancer. Our study may pave a way to ameliorate FU-based chemotherapeutic efficiency in colorectal cancer.