OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of bortezomib on the migration of endothelial cells and the expression of angiogenesis-related molecules, and explore the mechanism of its antiproliferation of tumor cells.

METHODSCell count kit CCK-8 was used to detect the relative proliferation activity of cells after treated by bortezomib at different concentrations for 12 h and 24 h, respectively. Transwell model was uesd to detect the migration rate of cells. Expression levels of VEGF and Annexin A2 genes were determined by real-time quantitative PCR. Annexin A2 protein was validated by Western blot.

RESULTSAfter treated with bortezomib at concentrations of 2.5, 5.0 and 10 nmol/L for 12h, respectively, the HMEC-1 cell proliferation activity was 1.004 ± 0.002, 0.793 ± 0.021 and 0.874 ± 0.062, respectively, being no statistical difference from that of control group (1.000) P < 0.05); while the migration rates of them were 0.697 ± 0.060, 0.597 ± 0.090 and 0.874 ± 0.062, respectively, being significantly lower than that of control group (1.000) (P < 0.05) and so did for the expression of VEGF and Annexin A2 genes. After treated with 5 nmol/L bortezomib for 12 h, the Annexin A2 and VEGF gene relative expression level of HMEC-1 cells was 0.540 ± 0.001 and 0.793 ± 0.153, respectively, being of statistical difference from that of control group (1.000) P < 0.05). The conspicuous downregulation of Annexin A2 protein was also confirmed by Western Blot.

CONCLUSIONSBortezomib can inhibit migration of endothelial cell HMEC-1 by downregulating the expression of VEGF and Annexin A2, displaying a new mechanism of bortezomib for inhibition of tumor proliferation.