Spica Prunellae Extract Enhances Fluorouracil Sensitivity of 5-Fluorouracil-Resistant Human Colon Carcinoma HCT-85-FU Cells via TOP2α and miR-494

Abstract EN

The use of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) has been proven benefits, but it also has adverse events in colorectal cancer (CRC) chemotherapy.

In this study, we explored the mechanism of 5-FU resistance by bioinformatics analysis of the NCBI public dataset series GSE81005.

Fifteen hub genes were screened out of 582 different expressed genes.

Modules of the hub genes in protein-protein interaction networks gathered to TOP2α showed a decrease in HCT-8 cells but an increase in 5-FU-resistant HCT-8/5-FU cells with 5-FU exposure.

Downregulation of TOP2α with siRNA or miR-494 transfection resulted in an increase of cytotoxicity and decrease of cell colonies to 5-FU for HCT-8/5-FU cells.

Moreover, we found that an ethanol extract of Spica Prunellae (EESP), which is a traditional Chinese medicine with clinically beneficial effects in various cancers, was able to enhance the sensitivity of 5-FU in HCT-8/5-FU cells and partly reverse the 5-FU resistance effect.

It significantly helped suppress cell growth and induced cell apoptosis in HCT-8/5-FU cells with the expression of TOP2α being significantly suppressed, which increased by 5-FU.

Consistently, miR-494, which reportedly regulates TOP2α, exhibited reverse trends in EESP/5-FU combination treatment.

These results suggested that Spica Prunellae may be beneficial in the treatment of 5-FU-resistant CRC patients.