Fraxetin exerts anticancer effect in glioma by suppressing MiR-21-3p

Hanxun Yao1, Xiaobin Li1, Xuyan Pan1

  • 1Department of Neurosurgery, Huzhou Central Hospital, Huzhou, China.

Drug Development Research
|September 15, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Fraxetin (FXT) inhibits glioma cell growth by reducing proliferation and inducing apoptosis. This anticancer effect is mediated by regulating specific genes and downregulating miR-21-3p.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biochemistry

Background:

  • Fraxetin (FXT) demonstrates anticancer properties across various cancers, but its specific role in glioma remains unclear.
  • Glioma is a challenging brain tumor with limited effective therapeutic options.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To elucidate the mechanism by which Fraxetin (FXT) exerts anticancer effects on glioma cells.
  • To investigate the impact of FXT on glioma cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle.
  • To explore the role of specific microRNAs (miRNAs) in mediating FXT's anti-glioma activity.

Main Methods:

  • Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay to assess cell viability.
  • Colony formation assay, flow cytometry, and Hoechst 33342 staining to evaluate proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle.
  • Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot to analyze gene and miRNA expression.
  • MiR-21-3p mimic transfection to confirm its role in FXT's mechanism.

Main Results:

  • FXT suppressed glioma cell viability, proliferation, and induced G0/G1 cell cycle arrest in a dose-dependent manner.
  • FXT altered the expression of apoptosis-related genes (Bax, cleaved caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bcl-XL) and cell cycle regulators (cyclin E1, cyclin D1, CDK6).
  • FXT modulated glioma-associated miRNAs, decreasing miR-21-3p and miR-455-3p while increasing miR-124-3p and miR-7-5p.
  • Overexpression of miR-21-3p reversed the effects of FXT on cell viability, proliferation, and apoptosis, confirming its regulatory role.

Conclusions:

  • Fraxetin exhibits significant anti-glioma potential by inhibiting cell proliferation, promoting apoptosis, and inducing cell cycle arrest.
  • FXT exerts its effects, at least in part, by modulating the expression of key apoptosis and cell cycle regulatory genes.
  • Downregulation of miR-21-3p is a critical mechanism through which Fraxetin suppresses glioma cell development.

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