Elsevier

Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

Volume 78, March 2016, Pages 308-321
Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

Original article
2-Methoxy-5((3,4,5-trimethosyphenyl)seleninyl) phenol (SQ0814061), a novel microtubule inhibitor, evokes G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human breast cancer cells

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2016.01.040Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • SQ is a newly synthesized analog of combretastatin A-4.

  • SQ is a novel microtubule inhibitor.

  • SQ exhibits potent anti-breast cancer properties.

  • SQ induced G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells.

  • The apoptosis induced by SQ is associated with PI3K-Akt-MDM2 pathway.

Abstract

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide, and novel chemotherapeutic drugs with high activity and no drug resistance for treating breast cancer are needed urgently. In this study, we investigated the antitumor effect of 2-methoxy-5((3,4,5-trimethosyphenyl)seleninyl) phenol (SQ0814061), which has a strong inhibition of cell growth in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. We demonstrated that SQ0814061 (SQ) time-dependently induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and subsequently progressed into apoptosis, which is associated with microtubule depolymerization. Western blot analysis revealed that up-regulation of cyclin B1 and Aurora A was related with G2/M phase arrest in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells treatment with SQ. However, the formation of multinucleated cells after a long time exposed to SQ of MCF-7 cells delayed the cell death. In addition, apoptosis induced by SQ is correlated with the down-regulation of the PI3K-Akt-MDM2 pathway in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Treatment with the PI3K specific inhibitor, LY294002, increased SQ-induced cell growth inhibitory rate and apoptosis rate of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, SQ induced MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the SQ-induced cell death was ROS dependent. In conclusion, all the data demonstrated that SQ exhibited its antitumor activity through disrupting the microtubule assembly, inducing cell cycle arrest and eventually apoptosis which is associated with PI3K-Akt-MDM2 pathway in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Therefore, the novel compound SQ is a promising microtubule inhibitor that has tremendous potentials for therapeutic treatment of human mastocarcinoma.

Keywords

Combretastatin A-4
G2/M arrest
Apoptosis
Breast cancer
MDM2

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