The Mechanism Underlying the Inhibition of the Growth of Breast Cancer Cell MCF-7 by Levamisole
ZHANG Zhiliang, XIANG Siqi, HE Shiqiang, CUI Ruxia, XIANG Mingjun*
Levamisole can be used as an adjuvant drug in the treatment of breast cancer, but its mechanism of inhibiting the growth of breast cancer cells is not clear. To explore its molecular mechanism, used CCK-8 assay results showed that levamisole inhibited cell viability in a dose- and time dependent manner. Verify cell migration ability using cell scratches, microscopic observation of its effect on cell morphology, double fluorescence staining with AO-EB (acridine orange/ethidium bromide) staining method revealed that levamisole treatment induced apoptosis, directly measured the expressions of PI3K/Akt, Bcl-2/Bax, and Caspase-9/3 by Western blot. The results showed that compared with the control, cell proliferation of the levamisole treatment group was significantly inhibited, and the effect was positively correlated with the drug concentration and time of action; Compare with the control group, the morphology of the cells in the levamisole treatment group shrank, tending to be round, meanwhile a large number of vacuoles appeared in the cells, and cell migration ability of the levamisole treatment group was significantly inhibited; AO-EB results showed that the apoptotic bodies increased after drug treatment, and the apoptotic rate increased significantly; the relative expressions of PI3K/Akt and Bcl-2 decreased significantly (P<0.01), and the protein expression of Bax, Caspase-9, and Caspase-3 increased significantly (P<0.001) detected by Western blot. In summary, levamisole inhibited the proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells MCF-7 by inhibiting PI3K/Akt and Bcl-2/Bax signal pathways, and promoted cell apoptosis to inhibit cell growth.
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