The inhibitory effect of resveratrol on COX-2 expression in human colorectal cancer: a promising therapeutic strategy

W.-H. Gong, N. Zhao, Z.-M. Zhang, Y.-X. Zhang, L. Yan, J.-B. Li

Department of Oncology, Linyi People’s Hospital, Shandong University, Linyi, Shandong, China. wangdongsheng1103@163.com

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• Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to investigate the mechanism of resveratrol (RSVL) on the inhibitory effect on the expression of COX-2 in human colorectal cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we used the HCT-116 cells as the observation group, and the normal cells as the control group. The inhibitory effect induced by RSVL on the COX-2 expression in human colorectal cancer was investigated. For the observation group, cells were cultured in the nutrition solution with RSVL, while the cells in both control group (normal colon epithelial cells) and blank control group (none-treated HCT-116 cells) were cultured in the regular nutrition solution. We assayed the mRNA expression and the protein expression of COX-2 in different groups using Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blot methods, respectively. Also, we measured the cell growth and apoptosis in different treatment groups by using methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay (MTT) method, and detected the differences in COX-2 expression among different groups through immunohistochemistry staining

RESULTS: Compared with blank control group, the rate of cell proliferation in the observation group treated with RSVL was significantly reduced. The results of RT-qPCR revealed that the mRNA expression of COX-2 of the observation group was affected compared with the blank control group. According to the results from enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blot, the expression of the COX-2 protein in the observation group treated with RSVL was significantly lower than that in the blank control group; however, results from the observation group and the control group were similar. Also, the immunohistochemistry results showed the positive rate of COX-2 expression in the observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS: RSVL (in a certain concentration) can suppress the human colorectal cancer through inhibition of COX-2 expression.

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