Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb;70(1):28-37.
doi: 10.1002/bab.2326. Epub 2022 Mar 25.

Zerumbone-induced reactive oxygen species-mediated oxidative stress re-sensitizes breast cancer cells to paclitaxel

Affiliations

Zerumbone-induced reactive oxygen species-mediated oxidative stress re-sensitizes breast cancer cells to paclitaxel

Jutao Li et al. Biotechnol Appl Biochem. 2023 Feb.

Abstract

Chemotherapy is an effective approach for cancer therapy when plant-derived sensitizers are combined with chemotherapeutics. Zerumbone, a natural phytochemical, has been documented to have various pharmacological roles. Here, we evaluated the chemosensitization potential of zerumbone in a breast cancer cell line in vitro. Zerumbone-induced cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cells was assessed by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT)-based metabolic analysis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated mitochondrial membrane alterations, DNA damage, and apoptotic morphological changes were measured by fluorescence microscopy methods. A biochemical assay was employed to analyze Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and antioxidant levels. Apoptotic marker expression levels were investigated by immunoblotting. MTT assay revealed that zerumbone significantly enhanced paclitaxel (PTX)-induced cell death in breast cancer cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, our study demonstrated that zerumbone (15 μM) significantly enhanced ROS when combined with PTX (1 μM) treatment. Additionally, we observed that zerumbone enhanced the impairment of mitochondrial membrane potential and oxidative DNA damage, thereby inducing apoptosis in combination with PTX. Western blot analysis indicated that zerumbone significantly upregulated BAX, caspase-7, and caspase-9 expression and decreased BCL-2 expression, thereby inducing proapoptotic protein-mediated cell death combined with PTX. The prooxidant properties of zerumbone potentially resensitize breast cancer cells to PTX by enhancing intracellular ROS-mediated oxidative stress.

Keywords: apoptosis; breast cancer; paclitaxel; reactive oxygen species; zerumbone.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018;68:394-424. https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.21492
    1. Sledge GW, Mamounas EP, Hortobagyi GN, Burstein HJ, Goodwin PJ, Wolff AC. Past, present, and future challenges in breast cancer treatment. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32: 1979-86.
    1. Cragg GM, Newman DJ. Natural products: a continuing source of novel drug leads. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2013;1830:3670-95.
    1. Vinod BS Maliekal TT, Anto RJ. Phytochemicals as chemosensitizers: from molecular mechanism to clinical significance. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2013;18:1307-48
    1. Dandawate P, Padhye S, Ahmad A, Sarkar FH. Novel strategies targeting cancer stem cells through phytochemicals and their analogs. Drug deliv Transl Res. 2013;3(2):165-82.