The inhibitory effect of cordycepin on the proliferation of MCF-7 breast cancer cells, and its mechanism. - GreenMedInfo Summary

is a well-known medicinal mushroom. It is non-toxic and has clinical health benefits including cancer inhibition. However, the anticancer effects ofcultured in brown rice on breast cancer have not yet been reported. In this study, we simultaneously investigated the anticancer effects of cordycepin and an extract ofcultured in brown rice on MCF-7 human breast cancer cells using a cell viability assay, cell staining with Hoechst 33342, and an image-based cytometric assay. Theconcentrate exhibited significant MCF-7 cell inhibitory effects, and its ICvalue was 73.48µg/mL. Cordycepin also exhibited significant MCF-7 cell inhibitory effects, and its ICvalue was 9.58µM. We applied network pharmacological analysis to predict potential targets and pathways of cordycepin. The gene set enrichment analysis showed that the targets of cordycepin are mainly associated with the hedgehog signaling, apoptosis, p53 signaling, and estrogen signaling pathways. We further verified the predicted targets related to the apoptosis pathway using western blot analysis. Theconcentrate and cordycepin exhibited the ability to induce apoptotic cell death by increasing the cleavage of caspase-7 -8, and -9, increasing the Bax/Bcl-2 protein expression ratio, and decreasing the protein expression of XIAP in MCF-7 cells. Consequently, theconcentrate and cordycepin exhibited significant anticancer effects through their ability to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells.