Ovarian cancer is the most lethal disease among the malignant tumors of female reproductive organs. Few successful therapeutic options exist for patients with ovarian cancer. The common therapeutic methods are surgical operation, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and combination of these treatments. In recent years, studies have indicated that Pinellia pedatisecta Schott (PPS), a traditional Chinese medicine, could inhibit tumor growth. In this study, we demonstrated that PPS extract could induce apoptosis in SKOV3 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. We further conducted transcriptome sequencing on PPS extract-treated SKOV3 cells along with controls, and identified 1,754 transcripts whose expression differs at least 3-fold over the controls. These differentially expressed transcripts include the apoptosis-related genes such as the caspase family members, and were significantly enriched in steroid biosynthesis in the KEGG pathway database compared with the transcriptome background. Most of the differentially expressed transcripts from this pathway were upregulated in PPS extract-treated cell line, indicating that PPS extract-induced apoptosis was accompanied by increased steroid biosynthesis (e.g. zymosterol). These results suggest that PPS extract could be a new cytostatic therapeutic agent for ovarian cancer.
José Luis Pérez de ArteagaArturo ReverterJosé Luis VidalAlberto Vilardell
José Luis García del BustoJosé Luis Pérez de ArteagaÁngel CarrascosaJoaquín Rubio TovarArturo ReverterRoberto Andrade Malde
José Luis García del BustoJosé Luis Pérez de ArteagaÁngel CarrascosaArturo Reverter
Pablo CanoFernando Gil OlallaAgustín Muñoz JiménezSantiago Martín BermúdezPedro González MiraLuis SalesXosé AviñoaRoberto Andrade MaldeXoán Manuel CarreiraCarlos VillanuevaSantiago Delgado Bueno