Decursin exerts anti-cancer activity in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells via inhibition of the Pin1 activity and enhancement of the Pin1/p53 association.

The peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase Pin1 is overexpressed in a wide variety of cancer cells and thus considered as an important target molecule for cancer therapy. This study demonstrates that decursin, a bioactive compound from Angelica gigas, exert the anti-cancer effect against breast cancer cells via regulation of Pin1 and its related signaling molecules. We observed that decursin induced G1 arrest with decrease in cyclin D1 level in Pin1-expressing breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231, but not Pin1-non-expressing breast cancer cells MDA-MB-157. In addition, decursin significantly reduced protein expression and enzymatic activity of Pin1 in MDA-MB-231 cells. Further, we found that decursin treatment enhanced the p53 expression level and failed to down-regulate Pin1 in the cells transfected with p53 siRNA, indicating the importance of p53 in the decursin-mediated Pin1 inhibition in MDA-MB-231 cells. Decursin stimulated association between Pin1 to p53. Moreover, decursin facilitated p53 transcription in MDA-MB-231 cells. Overall, our current study suggests the potential of decursin as an attractive cancer therapeutic agent for breast cancer by targeting Pin1 protein.