Physcion 8-O-β-glucopyranoside exhibits anti-growth and anti-metastatic activities in ovarian cancer by downregulating miR-25

Objective: Ovarian Cancer ranks 5th leading cause of cancer-related death in females worldwide. Physcion 8-O-β-glucopyranoside (PG) is an anthraquinone compound isolated from Rumex japonicus Houtt. This study aimed at investigating the effect of PG on ovarian Cancer cells.

Patients and methods: Cell viability was detected by CCK-8 assay. Colony formation assay evaluated whether PG could affect anchorage-independent growth. Whether PG affected cell cycle progression was examined by flow cytometry. The morphological changes caused by PG were visualized by microscopy. Apoptosis was quantitatively analyzed by flow cytometry. The effect of PG on cell migration and invasion was assessed by wound healing and transwell, respectively. The effect of PG on the expression of molecular markers was determined by Western blot. Microarray assay was performed to identify the potential target of PG.

Results: Results from the present study showed that PG decreased ovarian Cancer cells viability. Colony formation assay also showed that PG suppressed the anchorage-independent growth of SKOV3 and OVCAR-3 cells. PG triggered cell cycle arrest at G1/G0 phase. The pro-apoptotic activity of PG was confirmed by flow cytometry, activation of Caspase-3 and PARP, upregulation of Bax and downregulation of Bcl-2. The ability of PG to inhibit migration and invasion was evidenced by a decrease in wound healing and invasive cell number, as well as downregulation of MMP-2 and upregulation of TIMP-3. Microarray and qRT-PCR showed that miR-25 expression was downregulated by PG treatment. Moreover, our results indicated that the anti-cancer activities of PG were augmented by miR-25 knockdown and attenuated by ectopic miR-25 expression.

Conclusions: PG exhibited anti-cancer activity in ovarian Cancer by downregulating miR-25.