Asiaticoside induces apoptosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells through Vimentin/NLRP3 pathway

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of asiaticoside on the growth, apoptosis, apoptosis pathway in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2.

MethodsThe CNE-2 cells were cultured in vitro, and treated with different concentrations of Asiaticoside.The proliferation of cells were detected using MTT and CCK-8 assay, and the apoptosis rate of cells was detected using flow cytometry.The expression levels of Vimentin, NLRP3, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 protein were determined using Western blotting, and the serum levels of TNF-α and IL-1β were determined using ELISA.

ResultsThe results of MTT and CCK-8 assay showed that asiaticoside could inhibit the proliferation of CNE-2 cells ina concentration-dependent manner, the results of flow cytometry showed that asiaticoside could promote the apoptosis of CNE-2 cells in a concentration-dependent manner, the results of Western blotting showed that asiaticoside promoted the expression of Caspase-3, and inhibited the expression levels of Vimentin, NLRP3 and Bcl-2, and the results of ELISA showed that the contents of TNF-α and IL-1β could be decreased in a concentration-dependent manner.

ConclusionsAsiaticoside can significantly promote the apoptosis of human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2, and the mechanism may be realized by down-regulating the expression of Vimentin/NLRP3 protein.