β-asarone induces cell apoptosis, inhibits cell proliferation and decreases migration and invasion of glioma cells.

Glioma is the most common primary brain tumor Despite the availability of adjuvant therapies, malignant glioma grows fast and metastasizes via cerebrospinal fluid after tumorectomy or cerebrospinal fluid shunt placement, and the prognosis for patients with glioma remains poor. Our previous study demonstrated that β-asarone has anti-tumor effects on several kinds of cancer cells, especially for glioma cells. In this study, human glioma U251 cells and rat glioma C6 cells were treated with different concentrations of β-asarone. Cultured them for 24 h, 48 h, 72 h and evaluated the IC50 with the results of Counting Kit-8 assay. Then, cell apoptosis and cell DNA cycles were evaluated with flow cytometry. Apoptosis related mRNA and protein were analyzed In addition, cell migration and invasion were also detected with wound healing and transwell assays, respectively. What is more, glioma specific proteins: GFAP, NRP-1 and NSE an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The corresponding CCK-8 results showed that β-asarone altered cell morphology and inhibited cell proliferation. β-asarone can also induced cell apoptosis, decreased the expression of BCL-2 mRNA and blocked the DNA cycle at the G0/G1 phase for all the two cells. In addition, β-asarone inhibited cell migration and invasion by reducing the expression of GFAP, NRP-1 and NSE. Co-administration with TMZ showed a more pronounced effect. In summary, β-asarone induces cell death and inhibits cell migration and invasion in Glioma U251 and C6 cells.