A lethal synergy induced by phellinus linteus and camptothecin11 in colon cancer cells

Side effects of anti-cancer drugs are always challenging for effective cancer treatments. The polysaccharides extracted from Phellinus linteus (PLGL) have been widely used in treating cancers. However, the mechanism by which PLGL antagonizes cancerous growth has not been fully investigated. The current study demonstrated that human colon cancer HCT116 and HT29 cells became highly susceptible to cell death when being co-treated with PLGL and low dose of camptothecin11 (CPT11, a topoisomerase inhibitor-based drug), the efficacy of which was comparable as that generated by the high dose of CPT11. However, the co-treatment, unlike high doses of CPT11, was not cytotoxic to the control immortalized colon Caco-2 cells. The co-treatment caused high percentages of the colon cancer cells to accumulate in S phase of the cell cycle, which was also seen in the same cells received the high dose of CPT11 treatment. Chk1 was phosphorylated, and then rapidly degraded in the cancer cells treated with the high dose of CPT11 or co-treatment, but not in the cells treated with PLGL alone or low doses of CPT11. PLGL appeared enhancing CPT11 inhibitory effect on topoisomerase, and Chk1 degradatopm in the cancer cells. Furthermore, cyclin E (clnE) became unstable at the transcription level in co-treated or PLGL-treated colon cancer cells. The data suggested that PLGL functions in two ways to achieve its lethal synergy with CPT11 in colon cancer cells. Our findings are of potential significance as PLGL represents a promising medicine for overcoming the side effects of CPT11 and perhaps also for improving other CPTs-based regimens.