Background
Cinobufacini is extracted from the skins and parotid venom glands of the toad Bufo bufo gargarizans
cantor and has been widely used in clinical therapy for various cancers in China. The major pharmacologic constituents of cinobufacini are bufadienolides (which primarily include bufalin, cinobufagin, resibufogenin, bufotalin and lumichrome), alkaloids, biogenic amines, peptides and proteins [
1]. Studies have suggested that some of its active compounds (e.g., bufalin and cinobufagin) exhibit significant antitumor activity, including inhibition of cell proliferation, induction of cell differentiation, induction of apoptosis, disruption of the cell cycle, inhibition of cancer angiogenesis, reversal of multi-drug resistance, and regulation of the immune response [
2]. The mechanism of bufalin-induced apoptosis has been well investigated in various cancer cells. For example, bufalin was shown to induce apoptosis of human gastric cancer cells by inhibiting the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway [
3]. In prostate cancer cells, bufalin significantly induces apoptosis through the p53- and Fas-mediated apoptotic pathways [
4]. Bufalin was shown to induce ROS-mediated Bax translocation, mitochondrial permeability transition, and caspase-3 activation in human lung adenocarcinoma cells [
5]. In an orthotopic transplantation tumor model of human hepatocellular carcinoma, bufalin showed significant anticancer action by regulating expression of apoptosis-related proteins, Bcl-2 and Bax [
6]. Similarly, Takai et al. showed that bufalin-induced apoptosis was associated with levels of Bcl-2, Bcl-XL and caspase-9 in human endometrial and ovarian cancer cells [
7].
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, endogenous non-coding RNA molecules of ~ 22 nucleotides (nt) in length that can regulate gene expression. MiRNAs recognize and repress target mRNAs based on sequence complementarity, and are critical in regulating a variety of biological processes, including cell cycle, differentiation, development, and metabolism, as well as such diseases as diabetes, immuno- or neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer [
8]. In cancer, miRNAs function as regulatory molecules, acting as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Dysregulation of these miRNAs contributes to tumorigenesis by stimulating proliferation, angiogenesis and invasion [
9‐
11].
MiR-181 was first identified in promoting B-cell differentiation when expressed in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells [
12]. Subsequently, the miR-181 family (miR-181a and miR-181b) was shown to function as tumor suppressors that triggered growth inhibition, induced apoptosis and inhibited invasion in glioma cells [
13]. Ouyang et al. showed miR-181 to induce apoptosis by targeting multiple Bcl-2 family members in astrocytes [
14]. Recently, several studies further showed that by targeting various multiple anti-apoptosisgenes, such as
BCL-2, miR-181 significantly enhances drug- or radiation-induced apoptosis in various cancer cells [
15‐
20]. In chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), the
RalA gene was reported as a direct target of miR-181a, and is associated with cell proliferation, G
2-phase arrest and apoptosis [
21].
Here, we report that bufalin treatment could induce miR-181a expression. We also show that miR-181a contributes to bufalin-induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. Thus, our study illustrated a new pharmacological mechanism for bufalin in anti-tumor therapy.
Methods
Cell culture and treatment
Human prostate carcinoma PC-3 cells were maintained in Ham’s F-12 medium (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Bufalin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) was dissolved in DMSO and stocked in 1 mM solution. Cells with 80–90% confluence in 12-well plates were treated with indicated concentrations of bufalinfor 24 hours. When combined with miR-181a inhibitor, 50 or 100 μM of miR-181a inhibitor was transfectedinto cells (~70% confluence in 12-well plates) 12 hours before bufalin treatment. MiR-181a, miR-NC and their inhibitors were purchased from GenePharma (GenePharma, Shanghai, China). Sequence of miR-NC was from C. elegans and has no known similar sequence in the human genome. Transfection was performed using Lipofectamine™ RNAiMAX (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA).
RNA isolation and quantitative real-time PCR
Total RNA was isolated by Trizolreagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) according to the user’s guide specifically for short RNAs. Briefly, cells were homogenized by
RNApro reagent. After phase separation by chloroform, 2.5 volume of alcohol was added to the aqueous phase to precipitate total RNA containing short RNA. Total RNA was then recovered by centrifuge and dissolved in nuclease-free water. Two micrograms of total RNA was tailed and reverse transcribed by NCode™ EXPRESS SYBR® GreenER™ miRNA qRT-PCR Kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) according to the user’s manual. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed by miRNA specific primers (Additional file
1: Table S1). All Ct values of miRNAs were normalized to 18S rRNA. The 2
−ΔΔCt method was used to calculate relative expression level of miRNAs.
Apoptosis assay
The apoptosis assay was performed with an annexin-V-FITC apoptosis detection kit (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) according to the user’s manual. Cells after different time treatments were washed by twice with PBS (Phosphate Buffered Saline) buffer. Cells were then resuspended in 1 × binding buffer at a concentration of ~1 × 106 cells/ml, and 5 μl of Annexin V FITC conjugate and 10 μl of propidium iodide (PI) solution were added to each 500-μl cell suspension. Cells were stained by Annexin-V-FITC/PI for 10 min at room temperature. Stained samples were analyzed using MoFlo XDP flow cytometer (Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA) and the apoptosis rate was determined using Flowjo software (Tree Star, Ashland, OR, USA).
Western blotting
Cells were washed with PBS and lysed in RIPA buffer. Cell lysate aliquots (10 μg) were separated on a 10% SDS-PAGE gel and transferred to PVDF membrane. Primary antibodies for Bcl-2, Caspase-3, RalA and β-actin were purchased from Abcam (Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA). Secondary antibody coupled with HRP was from Sigma (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA). Membrane was visualized by ECL PicoLightChemiluminescence kit (Promoton, Shanghai, China). Membrane was then exposed to X-ray film in dark room.
Caspase-3 activity assay
Caspase-3 activity assay was performed by Caspase-Glo® 3/7 Assay kit (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) in 96-well plate according to the user’s manual. Luminescence was measured on a Mithras Multimode Microplate Reader LB 940 (Berthold, Calmbacher, Germany).
Discussion
Cinobufacini, is a form of traditional Chinese medicine, and has been approved by the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for many years. Cinobufacini injection is widely used in China to treat patients with various cancers [
27]. Many clinical trials have shown it to effectively shrink lesions and improve patients’ survival rate and quality of life. Bufalin, as a major active compound of cinobufacini, was considered to have great effect on tumors, including inhibition of proliferation and cancer angiogenesis, induction of differentiation and apoptosis, disruption of cell cycle, reversal of multi-drug resistance, and regulation of immune response [
6]. Although various studies present the mechanism by which bufalin induces apoptosis in cancer cells, the anti-tumor activity of bufalin and miRNAs in inducing miR-181a expression had not been shown before this study.
Many miRNAs regulate various processes in tumorigenesis, including apoptosis and metastasis, and have received increasing attention in cancer research. To test if miRNA pathways crosstalk with the pharmacologic action of bufalin in cancers, we screened expression of some cancer-related miRNAs in PC-3 cells after bufalin treatment, and observed miR-181a expression to significantly increase in a dose-dependent manner. We also showed miR-181 to induce significant apoptosis through down-regulation of Bcl-2 protein. Furthermore, miR-181a inhibitor largely attenuated bufalin-induced apoptosis. Our results indicate that miR-181a mediates a downstream, bufalin-induced apoptosis pathway, and suggest a more detailed model for bufalin-induced apoptosis in which bufalin induces expression of miR-181a, which in turn inhibits Bcl-2 protein, resulting in apoptosis.
Competing interests
The authors have no actual or potential conflict of interest associated with this work.
Authors’ contributions
XFZ, FFF and ZC participated in the design of the study data analyses and manuscript preparation. QL, YBM, YYG and FFF conducted the assays and analyses. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.