Synergetic anticancer effect of combined quercetin and recombinant adenoviral vector expressing human wild-type p53,GM-CSF and B7-1 genes on hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro

摘要

AIM: This study investigated the anti-cancer effect ofcombined quercetin and a recombinant adenovirus vectorexpressing the human p53, GM-CSF and B7-1 genes(designated BB-102) on human hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) cell lines in vitro.METHODS: The sensitivity of HCC cells to anticancer agentswas evaluated by 3-(4,5- dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The viability of cells infectedwith BB-102 was determined by trypan blue exclusion. Theexpression levels of human wild-type p53, GM-CSF and B7-1genes were determined by Western blot, enzyme-linkedimmunosorbent assay (ELISA) and flow cytometric analysis,respectively. The apoptosis of BB-102-infected or quercetin-treated HCC cells was detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase (TdT) assay or DNA ladder electrophoresis.RESULTS: Quercetin was found to suppress proliferation ofhuman HCC cell lines BEL-7402, HUH-7 and HLE, with peaksuppression at 50 μmol/L quercetin. BB-102 infection wasalso found to significantly suppress proliferation of HCC celllines. The apoptosis of BB-102-infected HCC cells was greaterin HLE and HUH-7 cells than in BEL-7402 cells. Quercetin didnot affect the expression of the three exogenous genes inBB-102-infected HCC cells (P＞0.05), but it was found to furtherdecrease proliferation and promote apoptosis of BB-102-infected HCC cells.CONCLUSION: BB-102 and quercetin synergeticallysuppress HCC cell proliferation and induce HCC cell apoptosis,suggesting a possible use as a combined anti-cancer agent.