| Literature DB >> 24870598 |
Hongcheng Zhu1, Xi Yang, Jia Liu, Yangyang Ge, Qin Qin, Jing Lu, Liangliang Zhan, Zheming Liu, Hao Zhang, Xiaochen Chen, Chi Zhang, Liping Xu, Hongyan Cheng, Xinchen Sun.
Abstract
Currently, unresectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is primarily treated by chemoradiotherapy. However, the outcome has not improved significantly because of radioresistance of cancer cells. This study aimed to determine the radiosensitizing effect of melittin, a novel component of bee venom, in ESCC. ESCC cell lines were irradiated with or without melittin. Cell proliferation was detected by Cell Counting Kit 8 assay. Radiosensitization was evaluated by clonogenic survival assay. Cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. Results show that melittin potently sensitized ESCC cells to radiation with a sensitization enhancement ratio of 1.15-1.42. Radiosensitization was accompanied with enhanced apoptosis and regulated by apoptosis proteins. The results were confirmed by in vivo studies on tumor-bearing xenografts. In summary, these results provide support that melittin may be a potentially promising radiosensitizer in ESCC radiation therapy.Entities:
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Year: 2014 PMID： 24870598 DOI： 10.1007/s13277-014-2146-z
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Tumour Biol ISSN： 1010-4283