Potential chemotherapeutic effect of betalain against human non-small cell lung cancer through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

This work focuses on evaluating the therapeutic ability of betalain and its causal mechanisms in NSCLC both in vivo and in vitro. The experimental results demonstrated that betalain was able to reduce the viability of A549 cells dose dependently with undetectable toxicity toward normal human cells. Betalain also augmented the apoptotic cells of A549 and cell cycle arrest which was evidenced via increased in level of p53/p21 and decreasing levels of cyclin-D1 complex. Moreover, betalain also reduced the levels of p-PI3K, p-Akt, and mammalian target of rapamycin significantly, justifying the pro-apoptotic effect on A549 cells. The in vivo anticancer activity of betalain was determined further in nude mice injected with A549 cells. Xenograft in vivo experiments confirmed betalain administration of ameliorates the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor markers with reduced toxic effect. Accordingly, this combined study provides significant insight on betalain as a therapeutic agent.