Anticancer activities of alkaloids extracted from the Ba lotus seed in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-1 cells.

To investigate the anticancer activities of alkaloids from the Ba lotus seed (BLSA) in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) CNE-1 cells, an MTT assay, flow cytometry, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were performed. BLSA was found to significantly reduce CNE-1 cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner at all concentrations compared with the control (P<0.05). In addition, flow cytometry analysis identified that BLSA treatment significantly increased the sub-G1 content in CNE-1 cells (P<0.05). Following BLSA treatment, the mRNA and protein levels of a number of apoptosis-related factors, such as caspase family members (caspase-3, -8 and -9), B-cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2-associated X protein, Fas and Fas ligand were significantly increased compared with the control (P<0.05). This was accompanied by a significant decrease in anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-extra large protein expression compared with the control (P<0.05). Furthermore, BLSA treatment was determined to modulate CNE-1 cell expression of nuclear factor (NF)-κB and NF-κB inhibitor α. The results of the present study indicate that BLSA has anticancer activity through inducing cellular apoptosis. In addition, these results suggest that BLSA can be used as a therapeutic agent in NPC.