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Policosanol suppresses tumor progression in a gastric cancer xenograft model

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Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is the most common cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer death, with the fifth highest incidence. The development of effective chemotherapeutic agents is needed to decrease GC mortality. Policosanol (PC) extracted from Cuban sugar cane wax is a healthy functional food ingredient that helps improve blood cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Its various physiological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities, have been reported recently. Nevertheless, the therapeutic efficacy of PC in gastric xenograft models is unclear. We aimed to investigate the anticancer effect of PC on human GC SNU-16 cells and a xenograft mouse model. PC significantly inhibited GC cell viability and delayed tumor growth without toxicity in the SNU-16–derived xenograft model. Therefore, we investigated protein expression levels in tumor tissues; the expression levels of Ki-67, a proliferation marker, and cdc2 were decreased. In addition, we performed proteomic analysis and found thirteen differentially expressed proteins. Our results suggested that PC inhibited GC progression via cdc2 suppression and extracellular matrix protein regulation. Notably, our findings might contribute to the development of novel and effective therapeutic strategies for GC.

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Funding

Tis research was funded by Ministry of Education, Grant no [2021R1A6A3A01086368], NRF by Korea, Grant no [2021R1A2C200453511] and the Priority Research Centers Program through the NRF, Grant no [2016R1A6A1A03007648].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duksung Innovative Drug Center, Duksung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea

    Sunyi Lee & Joohee Jung

  2. College of Pharmacy, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea

    Ga Seul Lee

  3. Disease Target Structure Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Daejeon, Korea

    Ga Seul Lee & Jeong Hee Moon

  4. College of Pharmacy, Duksung Women’s University, 33, Samyang-ro 144-gil, Dobong-gu, Seoul, 01369, Korea

    Joohee Jung

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  1. Sunyi Lee
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Correspondence to Joohee Jung.

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Lee, S., Lee, G.S., Moon, J.H. et al. Policosanol suppresses tumor progression in a gastric cancer xenograft model. Toxicol Res. 38, 567–575 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43188-022-00139-z

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