Influence of nodakenin on biological behavior of colorectal cancer cells through PI3K/AKT pathway

Objective: To investigate the influence of nodakenin (NK) on the biological behavior of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells through the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K) /serine/threonine kinase (AKT) pathway.Methods: SW480 cells were divided into SW480 group (SW480 cells were not treated), NK low-dose group (LNK group, 40 μmol/L NK), NK medium-dose group (M-NK group, 60 μmol/L NK), NK high-dose group (H-NK group, 80 μmol/L NK), and H-NK+740Y-P group (SW480 cells treated with 80 μmol/L NK+10 μmol/L PI3K activator 740Y-P).Plate clones were applied to test the cloning ability of SW480 cells.3- (4, 5-dimethylthiazole-2) 2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method was used to detect the proliferation of cells.The apoptosis of SW480 cells was detected by flow cytometry and Hoechst 33258 staining.The invasiveness of SW480 cells was detected by cell invasion test (Transwell).The adhesion of SW480 cells was detected by MTT method.Western blotting was used to detect the levels of adhesion, apoptosis and pathway-related proteins.Results: Compared with SW480 group, the nuclei of L-NK group, M-NK group and H-NK group were shrunk and fragmented, and the number of clones, B-lymphoblastoma-2 (Bcl-2), N-cadherin, Twist related protein 1 (Twist1) protein expression, p-PI3K/PI3K, and p-AKT/AKT ratio were significantly reduced in turn (P＜ 0.05); the cell growth inhibition rate, cell apoptosis rate, and Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax), activated cysteine proteinase-3 (cleaved Casase-3), E-cadherin expression and the inhibition rate of cell adhesion significantly increased in turn (P＜ 0.05).Compared with the H-NK group, the clone number, Bcl-2, N-cadherin, Twist1 protein expression, p-PI3K/PI3K and p-AKT/AKT ratio in the H-NK+740Y-P group significantly increased (P＜ 0.05).The cell growth inhibition rate, cell apoptosis rate, Bax, cleaved caspase-3, E-cadherin protein expression and cell adhesion inhibition rate significantly decreased (P＜ 0.05).Conclusion: NK may inhibit the proliferation and invasion of SW480 cells and promote their apoptosis by down-regulating PI3K/AKT pathway.