Background: A Chinese herb
Corydalis yanhusuo
W.T. Wang that showed anticancer and anti-angiogenesis effects in our previous studies was
presented for further studies. In the present study, we studied the anticancer proliferation and adhesion effects of five alkaloids which were
isolated from
Corydalis yanhusuo.
Materials and Methods: MTT dose response curves, cell migration assay, cell invasion assay, as well as three types of cell adhesive assay were
performed on MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells. The mechanism of the compounds on inhibiting heterotypic cell adhesion were further
explored by determining the expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), αv-integrin,
β
1- integrin and β
5- integrin by western blotting assay.
Results: In five tested alkaloids, only protopine exhibited anti-adhesive and anti-invasion effects in MDA-MB-231 cells, which contributed to the
anti-metastasis effect of
Corydalis yanhusuo. The results showed that after treatment with protopine for 90 min, the expression of EGFR, ICAM-1,
αv-integrin, β
1- integrin and β
5- integrin were remarkably reduced.
Conclusion: The present results suggest that protopine seems to inhibit the heterotypic cell adhesion between MDA-MB-231 cells, and human
umbilical vein endothelial cells by changing the expression of adhesive factors.
