Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Biochemistry (Moscow), cilt.89, ss.97-115, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
The overall survival of patients with the advanced and recurrent gastric cancer (GC) remains unfavorable. In particular, this is due to cancer spreading and resistance to chemotherapy associated with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of tumor cells. EMT can be identified by the transcriptome profiling of GC
for EMT markers. Indeed, analysis of the TCGA and GTEx databases (n = 408) and a cohort of GC patients (n = 43)
revealed that expression of the CDH2 gene was significantly decreased in the tumors vs. non-tumor tissues and
correlated with the overall survival of GC patients. Expression of the EMT-promoting transcription factors SNAIL
and ZEB1 was significantly increased in GC. These data suggest that targeting the EMT might be an attractive
therapeutic approach for patients with GC. Previously, we demonstrated a potent anti-cancer activity of the olive
leaf extract (OLE). However, its effect on the EMT regulation in GC remained unknown. Here, we showed that OLE
efficiently potentiated the inhibitory effect of the chemotherapeutic agents 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin (Cis)
on the EMT and their pro-apoptotic activity, as was demonstrated by changes in the expression of the EMT markers
(E- and N-cadherins, vimentin, claudin-1) in GC cells treated with the aforementioned chemotherapeutic agents
in the presence of OLE. Thus, culturing GC cells with 5-FU + OLE or Cis + OLE attenuated the invasive properties of
cancer cells. Importantly, upregulation of expression of the apoptotic markers (PARP cleaved form) and increase in
the number of cells undergoing apoptosis (annexin V-positive) were observed for GC cells treated with a combination of OLE and 5-FU or Cis. Collectively, our data illustrate that OLE efficiently interferes with the EMT in GC cells
and potentiates the pro-apoptotic activity of certain chemotherapeutic agents used for GC therapy.