Dihydroartemisinin-induced apoptosis in human acute monocytic leukemia cells

作者：Cao, Jia-Tian; Mo, Hui-Min; Wang, Yue; Zhao, Kai; Zhang, Tian-Tian; Wang, Chang-Qian; Xu, Kai-Lin^*; Han, Zhi-Hua^*

来源：Oncology Letters, 2018, 15(3): 3178-3184.

DOI：10.3892/ol.2017.7644

• dihydroartemisinin
• acute monocytic leukemia
• apoptosis
• extracellular signal-regulated kinase
• protein kinase B
• caspase-3

Dihydroartemisinin (DHA) is a derivative of artemisinin. The present study aimed to investigate whether DHA induces apoptosis in the THP-1 human acute monocytic leukemia cell line (AMoL), and to identify the relative molecular mechanisms. The results of the present study demonstrated that the viability of THP-1 cells were inhibited by DHA in a dose- and time-dependent manner, which was accompanied by morphological characteristics associated with apoptosis. After 24 h of 200 mu M DHA treatment, the proportion of apoptotic cells was significantly increased compared with the untreated controls (P<0.01). In addition, DHA downregulated the levels of B-cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2, protein kinase B (Akt) 1, Akt2 and Akt3 gene expression, and increased the expression of the Bcl-2-associated X protein apoptosis regulator. The protein expression of phospho-Akt and phospho-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) was also decreased, and the protein expression level of cleaved caspase-3 was increased following treatment with DHA. Therefore, DHA may induce apoptosis in the AMoL THP-1 cell line via currently unknown underlying molecular mechanisms, including the downregulation of ERK and Akt, and the activation of caspase-3.

• 出版日期2018-3
• 单位上海交通大学; 徐州医科大学