Abstract:
Objective To explore the effects of betulinic acid (BA) on the biological functions of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) HNE-1 cells, and its mechanism of action.
Methods The effect of different concentrations of BA on the viability of HNE-1 cells was detected by CCK8 method. The effect of BA on cell proliferation ability was detected by clone formation assay. The effects on the migration ability of cells were detected by scratch healing assay and Transwell migration assay. Transcriptome sequencing was used to analyze the signaling pathways of HNE-1 cells affected by BA, and the expression of pathway-related proteins was verified by Western blotting.
Results BA inhibited the proliferation, clone formation and migration ability of HNE-1 cells. Moreover, with the increase of concentration, the inhibitory ability of BA on the proliferation, clone formation and migration of HNE-1 cells increased (P < 0.01), and the mechanism might be by affecting the MAPK signaling pathway.
Conclusions BA can weaken the proliferation and migration ability of HNE-1 cells by inhibiting the MAPK signaling pathway.