Abstract
Piperlongumine (PL, piplartine) is an alkaloid derived from the Piper longum L. (long pepper) roots. Originally discovered in 1961, the biological activities of this molecule against some cancer types was reported during the last decade. Whether PL can synergize with doxorubicin and the underlying mechanism in breast cancer remains elusive. Herein, we report the activities of PL in numerous breast cancer cell lines. PL reduced the migration and colony formation by cancer cells. An enhancement in the sub-G1 population, reduction in the mitochondrial membrane potential, chromatin condensation, DNA laddering and suppression in the cell survival proteins was observed by the alkaloid. Further, PL induced ROS generation in breast cancer cells. While TNF-α induced p65 nuclear translocation, PL suppressed the translocation in cancer cells. The expression of lncRNAs such as MEG3, GAS5 and H19 were also modulated by the alkaloid. The molecular docking studies revealed that PL can interact with both p65 and p50 subunits. PL reduced the glucose import and altered the pH of the medium towards the alkaline side. PL also suppressed the expression of glucose and lactate transporter in breast cancer cells. In tumor bearing mouse model, PL was found to synergize with doxorubicin and reduced the size, volume and weight of the tumor. Overall, the effects of doxorubicin in cancer cells are enhanced by PL. The modulation of glucose import, NF-κB activation and lncRNAs expression may have contributory role for the activities of PL in breast cancer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hanahan D, Weinberg RA (2011) Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation. Cell 144:646–674
Zaid H, Antonescu CN, Randhawa VK, Klip A (2008) Insulin action on glucose transporters through molecular switches, tracks and tethers. Biochem J 413:201–215
Younes M, Brown R, Mody D, Fernandez L, Laucirica R (1995) GLUT1 expression in human breast carcinoma: correlation with known prognostic markers. Anticancer Res 15:2895–2898
Bisetto S, Whitaker-Menezes D, Wilski NA et al (2018) Monocarboxylate transporter 4 (MCT4) knockout mice have attenuated 4NQO induced carcinogenesis; a role for MCT4 in Driving oral squamous cell cancer. Front Oncol 8:324
Vaughan RA, Garcia-Smith R, Dorsey J, Griffith JK, Bisoffi M, Trujillo KA (2013) Tumor necrosis factor alpha induces Warburg-like metabolism and is reversed by anti-inflammatory curcumin in breast epithelial cells. Int J Cancer 133:2504–2510
Sommermann TG, O’Neill K, Plas DR, Cahir-McFarland E (2011) IKKβ and NF-κB transcription govern lymphoma cell survival through AKT-induced plasma membrane trafficking of GLUT1. Can Res 71:7291–7300
Mauro C, Leow SC, Anso E et al (2011) NF-κB controls energy homeostasis and metabolic adaptation by upregulating mitochondrial respiration. Nat Cell Biol 13:1272–1279
Liu J, Zhang C, Wu R et al (2015) RRAD inhibits the Warburg effect through negative regulation of the NF-κB signaling. Oncotarget 6:14982
Wang H, Jiang H, Corbet C et al (2019) Piperlongumine increases sensitivity of colorectal cancer cells to radiation: involvement of ROS production via dual inhibition of glutathione and thioredoxin systems. Cancer Lett 450:42–52
Gupta SC, Sundaram C, Reuter S, Aggarwal BB (2010) Inhibiting NF-κB activation by small molecules as a therapeutic strategy. Biochim et Biophys Acta (BBA) 1799:775–787
Gupta SC, Awasthee N, Rai V, Chava S, Gunda V, Challagundla KB (2019) Long non-coding RNAs and nuclear factor-B crosstalk in cancer and other human diseases. Biochim et Biophys Acta (BBA) 1873:188316
Liu Y, He X, Chen Y, Cao D (2020) Long non-coding RNA LINC00504 regulates the Warburg effect in ovarian cancer through inhibition of miR-1244. Mol Cell Biochem 464:39–50
Malakar P, Stein I, Saragovi A et al (2019) Long noncoding RNA MALAT1 regulates cancer glucose metabolism by enhancing mTOR-mediated translation of TCF7L2. Can Res 79:2480–2493
Xiang S, Gu H, Jin L, Thorne RF, Zhang XD, Wu M (2018) LncRNA IDH1-AS1 links the functions of c-Myc and HIF1α via IDH1 to regulate the Warburg effect. Proc Natl Acad Sci 115:E1465–E1474
Liu X, Gan B (2016) lncRNA NBR2 modulates cancer cell sensitivity to phenformin through GLUT1. Cell Cycle 15:3471–3481
Bezerra DP, Pessoa C, de Moraes MO, Saker-Neto N, Silveira ER, Costa-Lotufo LV (2013) Overview of the therapeutic potential of piplartine (piperlongumine). Eur J Pharm Sci 48:453–463
Costa-Lotufo LV, Montenegro RC, Alves APN et al (2010) The contribution of natural products as source of new anticancer drugs: Studies carried out at the national experimental oncology laboratory from the Federal University of Ceará. Revista Virtual de Química 2:47–58
Chen SY, Huang HY, Lin HP, Fang CY (2019) Piperlongumine induces autophagy in biliary cancer cells via reactive oxygen species-activated Erk signaling pathway. Int J Mol Med 44:1687–1696
Zhang P, Shi L, Zhang T et al (2019) Piperlongumine potentiates the antitumor efficacy of oxaliplatin through ROS induction in gastric cancer cells. Cell Oncol 42:847–860
Randhawa H, Kibble K, Zeng H, Moyer M, Reindl K (2013) Activation of ERK signaling and induction of colon cancer cell death by piperlongumine. Toxicol In Vitro 27:1626–1633
Yao Y, Sun Y, Shi M et al (2016) Piperlongumine induces apoptosis and reduces bortezomib resistance by inhibiting STAT3 in multiple myeloma cells. Oncotarget 7:73497
Li Q, Chen L, Dong Z et al (2019) Piperlongumine analogue L50377 induces pyroptosis via ROS mediated NF-κB suppression in non-small-cell lung cancer. Chem-Biol interact 313:108820
Dhillon H, Chikara S, Reindl KM (2014) Piperlongumine induces pancreatic cancer cell death by enhancing reactive oxygen species and DNA damage. Toxicol Rep 1:309–318
Chen S-Y, Liu G-H, Chao W-Y et al (2016) Piperlongumine suppresses proliferation of human oral squamous cell carcinoma through cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and senescence. Int J Mol Sci 17:616
Kong E-H, Kim Y-J, Kim Y-J et al (2008) Piplartine induces caspase-mediated apoptosis in PC-3 human prostate cancer cells. Oncol Rep 20:785–792
Wang F, Mao Y, You Q, Hua D, Cai D (2015) Piperlongumine induces apoptosis and autophagy in human lung cancer cells through inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol 28:362–373
Han JG, Gupta SC, Prasad S, Aggarwal BB (2014) Piperlongumine chemosensitizes tumor cells through interaction with cysteine 179 of IκBα kinase, leading to suppression of NF-κB–regulated gene products. Mol Cancer Ther 13:2422–2435
Fofaria NM, Srivastava SK (2014) Critical role of STAT3 in melanoma metastasis through anoikis resistance. Oncotarget 5:7051
Xiong X-x, Liu J-m, Qiu X-y, Pan F, Yu S-b, Chen X-q (2015) Piperlongumine induces apoptotic and autophagic death of the primary myeloid leukemia cells from patients via activation of ROS-p38/JNK pathways. Acta Pharmacol Sin 36:362–374
Thongsom S, Suginta W, Lee KJ, Choe H, Talabnin C (2017) Piperlongumine induces G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis in cholangiocarcinoma cells through the ROS-JNK-ERK signaling pathway. Apoptosis 22:1473–1484
Chen Y, Liu JM, Xiong XX et al (2015) Piperlongumine selectively kills hepatocellular carcinoma cells and preferentially inhibits their invasion via ROS-ER-MAPKs-CHOP. Oncotarget 6:6406
Yao J-X, Yao Z-F, Li Z-F, Liu Y-B (2014) Radio-sensitization by Piper longumine of human breast adenoma MDA-MB-231 cells in vitro. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev 15:3211–3217
Verma SS, Rai V, Awasthee N et al (2019) Isodeoxyelephantopin, a sesquiterpene lactone induces ROS generation, suppresses NF-κB activation, modulates LncRNA expression and exhibit activities against breast cancer. Sci Rep 9:1–16
Chou TC (2010) Drug combination studies and their synergy quantification using the Chou-Talalay method. Cancer Res 70:440–446
Gupta SC, Prasad S, Sethumadhavan DR, Nair MS, Mo Y-Y, Aggarwal BB (2013) Nimbolide, a limonoid triterpene, inhibits growth of human colorectal cancer xenografts by suppressing the proinflammatory microenvironment. Clin Cancer Res 19:4465–4476
Awasthee N, Rai V, Verma SS, Francis KS, Nair MS, Gupta SC (2018) Anti-cancer activities of Bharangin against breast cancer: Evidence for the role of NF-κB and lncRNAs. Biochim et Biophys Acta (BBA) 1862:2738–2749
Zhao Y-R, Li H-M, Zhu M et al (2018) Non-benzoquinone geldanamycin analog, WK-88-1, induces apoptosis in human breast cancer cell lines. J Microbiol Biotechnol 28:542–550
Saeed U, Durgadoss L, Valli RK, Joshi DC, Joshi PG, Ravindranath V (2008) Knockdown of cytosolic glutaredoxin 1 leads to loss of mitochondrial membrane potential: implication in neurodegenerative diseases. PLoS ONE 3:e2459
Gupta SC, Singh R, Asters M et al (2016) Regulation of breast tumorigenesis through acid sensors. Oncogene 35:4102–4111
Gupta SC, Singh R, Pochampally R, Watabe K, Mo Y-Y (2014) Acidosis promotes invasiveness of breast cancer cells through ROS-AKT-NF-κB pathway. Oncotarget 5:12070
Thang ND, Yajima I, Kumasaka MY et al (2011) Barium promotes anchorage-independent growth and invasion of human HaCaT keratinocytes via activation of c-SRC kinase. PLoS ONE 6:e25636
Mishra S, Verma SS, Rai V et al (2019) Curcuma raktakanda induces apoptosis and suppresses migration in cancer cells: role of reactive oxygen species. Biomolecules 9:159
Schmittgen TD, Livak KJ (2008) Analyzing real-time PCR data by the comparative C T method. Nat Protoc 3:1101
Cheng F, Li W, Zhou Y et al (2012) admetSAR: a comprehensive source and free tool for assessment of chemical ADMET properties. ACS Publications, Washington DC
Lipinski CA, Lombardo F, Dominy BW, Feeney PJ (2001) Experimental and computational approaches to estimate solubility and permeability in drug discovery and development settings. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 46:3–26
Morris GM, Huey R, Lindstrom W et al (2009) AutoDock4 and AutoDockTools4: automated docking with selective receptor flexibility. J Comput Chem 30:2785–2791
Pierce BG, Hourai Y, Weng Z (2011) Accelerating protein docking in ZDOCK using an advanced 3D convolution library. PLoS ONE 6:e24657
Ozaslan M, Karagoz ID, Kilic IH, Guldur ME (2011) Ehrlich ascites carcinoma. Afr J Biotech 10:2375–2378
Tomayko MM, Reynolds CP (1989) Determination of subcutaneous tumor size in athymic (nude) mice. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 24:148–154
Ranjan A, Choubey M, Yada T, Krishna A (2019) Direct effects of neuropeptide nesfatin-1 on testicular spermatogenesis and steroidogenesis of the adult mice. Gen Comp Endocrinol 271:49–60
Long J, Zhang C-J, Zhu N et al (2018) Lipid metabolism and carcinogenesis, cancer development. Am J Cancer Res 8:778
Lofterød T, Mortensen ES, Nalwoga H et al (2018) Impact of pre-diagnostic triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol on breast cancer recurrence and survival by breast cancer subtypes. BMC Cancer 18:1–11
Bezerra DP, Militão GCG, De Castro FO et al (2007) Piplartine induces inhibition of leukemia cell proliferation triggering both apoptosis and necrosis pathways. Toxicol In Vitro 21:1–8
Bezerra DP, Castro FOd, Alves APN et al (2008) In vitro and in vivo antitumor effect of 5-FU combined with piplartine and piperine. J Appl Toxicol 28:156–163
Done S (2011) Breast cancer: recent advances in biology, imaging and therapeutics. BoD-Books on Demand, Hamburg
Shirazi FH, Zarghi A, Kobarfard F et al (2011) Remarks in successful cellular investigations for fighting breast cancer using novel synthetic compounds. In: Gunduz M, Gunduz E (eds) Breast cancer: focusing tumor microenvironment, stem cells and metastasis. BoD-Books on Demand, Hamburg, pp 85–102
Anders C, Carey LA (2008) Understanding and treating triple-negative breast cancer. Oncology (Williston Park) 22:1233
Bezerra DP, Pessoa C, Moraes MO et al (2012) Sensitive method for determination of piplartine, an alkaloid amide from piper species, in rat plasma samples by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Quim Nova 35:460–465
Patel K, Chowdhury N, Doddapaneni R, Boakye CHA, Godugu C, Singh M (2015) Piperlongumine for enhancing oral bioavailability and cytotoxicity of docetaxel in triple-negative breast cancer. J Pharm Sci 104:4417–4426
Tanaka A, Youle RJ (2008) A chemical inhibitor of DRP1 uncouples mitochondrial fission and apoptosis. Mol Cell 29:409–410
Han S-S, Son D-J, Yun H, Kamberos NL, Janz S (2013) Piperlongumine inhibits proliferation and survival of Burkitt lymphoma in vitro. Leuk Res 37:146–154
Rothwarf DM, Karin M (1999) The NF-κB activation pathway: a paradigm in information transfer from membrane to nucleus. Sci STKE 1999:re1
Gupta SC, Prasad S, Reuter S et al (2010) Modification of cysteine 179 of IκBα kinase by nimbolide leads to down-regulation of NF-κB-regulated cell survival and proliferative proteins and sensitization of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic agents. J Biol Chem 285:35406–35417
Pandey MK, Gupta SC, Nabavizadeh A, Aggarwal BB (2017) Regulation of cell signaling pathways by dietary agents for cancer prevention and treatment. Semin Cancer Biol 46:158–181
Mohammad J, Dhillon H, Chikara S et al (2018) Piperlongumine potentiates the effects of gemcitabine in in vitro and in vivo human pancreatic cancer models. Oncotarget 9:10457
Wondrak GT (2009) Redox-directed cancer therapeutics: molecular mechanisms and opportunities. Antioxid Redox Signal 11:3013–3069
Chen W, Lian W, Yuan Y, Li M (2019) The synergistic effects of oxaliplatin and piperlongumine on colorectal cancer are mediated by oxidative stress. Cell Death Dis 10:1–12
Fofaria NM, Qhattal HSS, Liu X, Srivastava SK (2016) Nanoemulsion formulations for anti-cancer agent piplartine: characterization, toxicological, pharmacokinetics and efficacy studies. Int J Pharm 498:12–22
Nielsen D, Maare C, Skovsgaard T (1996) Cellular resistance to anthracyclines. Gen Pharmacol 27:251–255
Piska K, Koczurkiewicz P, Wnuk D et al (2019) Synergistic anticancer activity of doxorubicin and piperlongumine on DU-145 prostate cancer cells: the involvement of carbonyl reductase 1 inhibition. Chem-Biol Interact 300:40–48
Gupta SC, Kim JH, Kannappan R, Reuter S, Dougherty PM, Aggarwal BB (2011) Role of nuclear factor-κ B-mediated inflammatory pathways in cancer-related symptoms and their regulation by nutritional agents. Exp Biol Med 236:658–671
Tsushima H, Mori M (2001) Involvement of protein kinase C and tyrosine kinase in lipopolysaccharide-induced anorexia. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 69:17–22
Brown RS, Wahl RL (1993) Overexpression of glut-1 glucose transporter in human breast cancer an immunohistochemical study. Cancer 72:2979–2985
Chan DA, Sutphin PD, Nguyen P et al (2011) Targeting GLUT1 and the Warburg effect in renal cell carcinoma by chemical synthetic lethality. Sci Transl Med 3:94ra70
Kurniadewi F, Juliawaty LD, Syah YM et al (2010) Phenolic compounds from Cryptocarya konishii: their cytotoxic and tyrosine kinase inhibitory properties. J Nat Med 64:121–125
Vetterli L, Brun T, Giovannoni L, Bosco D, Maechler P (2011) Resveratrol potentiates glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in INS-1E β-cells and human islets through a SIRT1-dependent mechanism. J Biol Chem 286:6049–6060
Acknowledgements
The study was supported in part from Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi (5/13/51/2020/NCD-III) and Science and Engineering Research Board, New Delhi (ECR/2016/000034). NA (5/3/8/40/ITR-F/2019-ITR), VR (3/2/2/43/2018/Online Onco Fship/NCD-III), and SM (3/1/3/JRF-2016/LS/HRD-65-80388) received fellowship from Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi. SSV was supported from DBT New Delhi (DBT/2017/BHU/786). AS was supported from UGC New Delhi [No.F.82-1/2018(SA-III)]. We thankfully acknowledge the support from Dr. Rahul K. Singh, Department of Zoology, BHU and Dr. P.K. Nayak, Department of Pharmaceutics Engineering and Technology, IIT BHU with Chemi-Doc system and animal house facility, respectively. The analyses with real-time PCR system and flow cytometer were performed at BHU’s Interdisciplinary School of Life Sciences.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Awasthee, N., Shekher, A., Rai, V. et al. Piperlongumine, a piper alkaloid, enhances the efficacy of doxorubicin in breast cancer: involvement of glucose import, ROS, NF-κB and lncRNAs. Apoptosis 27, 261–282 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495-022-01711-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495-022-01711-6