TY - JOUR
T1 - Synergistic effect of the herbal mixture C5E on gemcitabine treatment in PANC‑1 cells
AU - Pak, Pyo June
AU - Lee, Dong Gun
AU - Sung, Ji Hyun
AU - Jung, Seung Hyun
AU - Han, Tae Young
AU - Park, Sung Hyo
AU - Chung, Namhyun
N1 - Funding Information:
The present study was supported by a grant from the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant no. B110053).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Spandidos Publications. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - The present study aimed to determine the anticancer effect of the herbal mixture extract C5E in the pancreatic cancer cell line, PANC‑1, in the absence or presence of gemcitabine treatment, a chemotherapeutic drug used for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The anticancer effects of C5E, gemcitabine and C5E plus gemcitabine in PANC‑1 cells following 72 h of treatment were investigated. The effect of each treatment on cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and the proportion of side popula‑ tion (SP) cells was determined using flow cytometric analysis following propidium iodide (PI), Annexin V‑FITC/PI double staining and Hoechst 33342 staining, respectively. SP cells share similar characteristics to cancer stem‑like cells, and a reduction in the SP is considered to be indicative of an anti‑ cancer effect. The percentage of SP cells and the cell viability of general PANC‑1 cells were significantly decreased in response to all treatments. The percentage of SP cells was reduced from 8.2% (control) to 3.9, 7.2 and 5.1% following the treatment with C5E, gemcitabine and the co‑treatment, respectively. All three treatments were discovered to inhibit cell viability by arresting the cell cycle at the S phase and promoted cell death by inducing early apoptosis, with the levels of apoptosis being increased from 1.9% (control) to 7.3, 2.5 and 12.0% following the treatment with C5E, gemcitabine and the co‑treatment, respectively. The mRNA expression levels of sonic hedgehog, which is implicated in the development of certain types of cancer, were downregulated to a greater extent following the co‑treatment with C5E and gemcitabine compared with the treatment with either C5E or gemcitabine alone. As the co‑treatment with gemcitabine and C5E was more effective than each individual treatment, the present study suggested that the combined treatment may exhibit synergistic effects in PANC‑1 cells.
AB - The present study aimed to determine the anticancer effect of the herbal mixture extract C5E in the pancreatic cancer cell line, PANC‑1, in the absence or presence of gemcitabine treatment, a chemotherapeutic drug used for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The anticancer effects of C5E, gemcitabine and C5E plus gemcitabine in PANC‑1 cells following 72 h of treatment were investigated. The effect of each treatment on cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and the proportion of side popula‑ tion (SP) cells was determined using flow cytometric analysis following propidium iodide (PI), Annexin V‑FITC/PI double staining and Hoechst 33342 staining, respectively. SP cells share similar characteristics to cancer stem‑like cells, and a reduction in the SP is considered to be indicative of an anti‑ cancer effect. The percentage of SP cells and the cell viability of general PANC‑1 cells were significantly decreased in response to all treatments. The percentage of SP cells was reduced from 8.2% (control) to 3.9, 7.2 and 5.1% following the treatment with C5E, gemcitabine and the co‑treatment, respectively. All three treatments were discovered to inhibit cell viability by arresting the cell cycle at the S phase and promoted cell death by inducing early apoptosis, with the levels of apoptosis being increased from 1.9% (control) to 7.3, 2.5 and 12.0% following the treatment with C5E, gemcitabine and the co‑treatment, respectively. The mRNA expression levels of sonic hedgehog, which is implicated in the development of certain types of cancer, were downregulated to a greater extent following the co‑treatment with C5E and gemcitabine compared with the treatment with either C5E or gemcitabine alone. As the co‑treatment with gemcitabine and C5E was more effective than each individual treatment, the present study suggested that the combined treatment may exhibit synergistic effects in PANC‑1 cells.
KW - Cancer stem‑like cells
KW - Gemcitabine
KW - Herbal mixture extract
KW - PANC‑1 cells
KW - Side population
KW - Traditional Chinese medicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102488478&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3892/mmr.2021.11954
DO - 10.3892/mmr.2021.11954
M3 - Article
C2 - 33760105
AN - SCOPUS:85102488478
SN - 1791-2997
VL - 23
JO - Molecular Medicine Reports
JF - Molecular Medicine Reports
IS - 5
M1 - 315
ER -