Objective:In this study,a series of experiments were conducted to research the mechanism of anticancer and preliminary molecular effects of PAMs on the HEPG-2 cancer cells.Methods:Morphological observation and MTT assay were used to explore the inhibition and killing effect of PAMs acting on HEPG-2.AO/EB staining and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining were employed to observe the apoptosis of HEPG-2 treated with PAMs.The expression level of Foxm1,bcl-2 and others genes in HEPG-2 cells were detected by using qRT-PCR and western blot.Wound healing and transwell experiments determined if PAMs can inhibit the migration of HEPG-2.Results:PAMs can inhibit and kill HEPG-2 cells in time and dose-dependent manners,and the cytotoxic effects were closely related to the cell apoptosis.The mRNA expression of foxm1,bcl-2 and surviving gene were remarkably decreased in HEPG-2 cells after the treatment of PAMs.PAMs decreased the FoXM1 protein expression in HEPG-2 cells,while up-regulating thep53 protein expression.,and it could also inhibit the migration of cancer cells.Conclusions:The possible molecular mechanism for the killing of HEPG-2 cancer cells by PAMs was proposed.By down-regulating the expression of foxm1 and up-regulating the expression of p53,the transcriptional expression of their downstream target genes survivin and bcl-2 was inhibited or reduced,hence enhancing the cancer cell apoptosis.This study provides an important foundation for the development of anti-cancer Chinese folk medicine based on PAMs.

In this study, the leukemia K562 cell line was used as a model to elucidate the anticancer effects and preliminary mechanisms of PAMs. MTT assay showed that PAMs could cause cytotoxicities in K562 cells in dose- and time-dependent manners. AO-EB, Annexin-FITC/PI staining showed that the killing effects of PAMs in K562 cells were related to apoptosis, which was further confirmed by the following molecular and enzymatic assay. The mRNA levels of pro-apoptotic genes caspase-3, caspase-9 and bax were remarkably increased while the anti-apoptotic gene bcl-2 was significantly decreased determined by fluorescent quantitative PCR. Western blotting disclosed that PAMs could up-regulate caspase-3 and down-regulate anti-apoptotic survivin protein expression. The latter was also consistent with the results that PAMs could increase the enzymatic activities of both caspase-3 and caspase-9. All these results suggested that PAMs could effectively inhibit the proliferation of K562 cells and the mechanisms may be closely related to apoptosis induction. The work provides evidence basis for PAMs to be potentially developed as anti-cancer leukemia Chinese medicine.