Gambogic acid sensitizes ovarian cancer cells to doxorubicin through ROS-mediated apoptosis.

Ovarian cancer is one human malignancy which has response portly to doxorubicin. The anti-cancer activity of gambogic acid has been tested in in vitro and in vivo studies. In this study, we showed that gambogic acid, a natural compound, could potentiate the anticancer activity of doxorubicin in ovarian cancer through ROS-mediated apoptosis. Platinum-resistant human ovarian cancer cell line (SKOV-3) was treated with gambogic acid, doxorubicin, or the combination of both to investigate cell proliferation and apoptosis. We found that the combination of gambogic acid and doxorubicin causes synergistic loss of cell viability in SKOV-3 cells and this synergistic effect correlated with increased cellular ROS accumulation. Moreover, in vivo results showed that gambogic acid and doxorubicin combination resulted in a synergistic suppressing effect on tumor growth in ovarian cancer mice model. Taken together, the results suggested that doxorubicin in combination with gambogic acid might provide a promising therapeutic strategy to enhance chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer to doxorubicin.