Puerarin inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis by up-regulation of miR-16 in bladder cancer cell line T24. - GreenMedInfo Summary

Bladder cancer (BC) is a common disease of the urinary system. Puerarin is a kind of flavonoid extracted from Puerarialobata. However, the role of puerarin in BC remains unclear. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the effect of puerarin on BC cells. Cell viability, proliferation and apoptosis were measured by CCK-8, BrdU assay and flow cytometry analysis, respectively. The expressions of miR-16, apoptosis-related factors and main factors of NF-κB pathway were analyzed by qRT-PCR and western blot. In this study, we found that cell viability and proliferation were significantly reduced, cell apoptosis was enhanced, and the mRNA level of miR-16 was up-regulated in puerarin treated T24 cells. Further, miR-16 silence inhibited the decrease ofcell viability and the increase of apoptosis. The main factors expressions of NF-κB signaling pathway were down-regulated in the puerarin group, while miR-16 silence alleviated these downregulations. More importantly, puerarin deactivated NF-κB signaling pathway via upregulation of miR-16, then miR-16 down-regulated COX-2 expression via deactivation of NF-κB signaling pathway. This study demonstrated that puerarin could inhibit cell proliferation, promote cell apoptosis and deactivate NF-κB signaling pathway via upregulation of miR-16 in T24 cells.