Carnosic acid regulates cell proliferation and invasion in chronic myeloid leukemia cancer cells via suppressing microRNA-708.

OBJECTIVE

Carnosic acid (CA) is an important polyphenol mainly isolated from the famous spice and the medicinal plant Rosmarinus officinalis. CA has been shown to exhibit tremendous pharmacological properties which include, but are not limited to, anticancer, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The current study was designed to evaluate the anticancer effects of CA against chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) which is one of the rare but deadly malignancies both in men and women.

METHODS

CML KBM-7 cell line was used in this study. Cell viability was assessed by MTT assay. Apoptosis was detected by DAPI and annexin V/PI staining, cell cycle analysis by flow cytometry and cell invasion by Boyden chamber assay. The microRNA-780 expression was determined by quantitative RT-PCR.

RESULTS

Our results indicated that CA exhibits significant anticancer activity on CML KBM-7 cells with an IC50 of 25 μM. The anticancer activity was due to induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Moreover, it was observed that CA inhibits the proliferation and invasion of CML KBM-7 cells which could mainly be due to downregulation of microRNA- 780 expression as indicated by the quantitative RT-PCR analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, we propose that carnosic acid could prove a potential lead compound in the treatment of CML and deserves further in vitro as well as in vivo study.