Human NB SH-SY5Y cells undergo apoptosis in response to treatment with cucurbitacin B. - GreenMedInfo Summary

Cucurbitacin B (CuB) is a tetracyclic triterpene that is contained in extracts from cucurbitaceous plants and has been demonstrated to have anticancer and anti‑inflammatory activities. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether CuB exhibits anticancer effects on SH‑SY5Y human neuroblastomacells and to analyze the underlying molecular mechanism. The results demonstrated that CuB not only induced cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, but also induced apoptosis as characterized by positive Annexin V staining, downregulation of phospho‑Janus kinase 2 (p‑JAK2), phospho‑signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (p‑STAT3), phospho‑extracellular signal‑regulated kinases and the activation of c‑Jun N‑terminal kinase and p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK). CuB also altered the expression of gene products that mediated cell proliferation (Cyclin B1 andcyclin‑dependent kinase 1), cell survival (B‑cell lymphoma 2, Bcl2‑associated X protein) and increased the expression of p53 and p21. These results provide the evidence that JAK2/STAT3 and MAPKs have crucial roles in CuB‑induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in SH‑SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells.