Effect of cinobufacin on the proliferation and expression of PTEN/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in non-small cell lung cancer cell line A549

ObjectiveTo observe the expression changes of PTEN/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway protein after the lung cancer cells A549 treated with cinobufacin.

MethodsDifferent concentrations of cinobufacin were added to the cultured lung cancer cell line NCI-A549, and the cell proliferation activity was measured using cell counting kit-8 after 24, 48 and 72 h.Ki67 and EdU were used to detect the proliferation of cells after 72 h of treatment with cinobufacin.Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of protein kinase B/mammalian rapamycin target protein pathway protein(AKT/mTOR) and phosphorylated-phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten(P-PTEN).

ResultsThe proliferation of A549 cell line inhibited after treatment with 0.2 μg/mL cinobufacin for 48 h(P < 0.01), and the proliferation of A549 cell line was inhibited after treatment with 0.8 μg/mL cinobufacin for 12 h(P < 0.05 to P < 0.01).Compared with the control group, the expression levels of p-PI3K, p-AKT, p-mTOR, p-S6 and p-PTEN in experimential group after 72 h of treatment with different concentrations of cinobufacin decreased(P < 0.05 to P < 0.01), while the differences of the expression levels of PI3K, AKT, mTOR, S6 and PTEN were not statistically significant between the control group and erperimantial group(P>0.05).

ConclusionsCinobufacin may inhibit the proliferation of lung cancer cells A549 by inhibiting the phosphorylation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway protein.