Decreased Expression of Cancer Stem Cell Markers in Esophageal Cancer Cells upon Auraptene Treatment

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are malignant cells with high proliferation, migration, therapyresistance and tumorigenic abilities that have been detected in several human cancers.CSCs can be isolated from other cancer cells by distinct markers such as CD44 and BMI1.Auraptene is a natural coumarin with various biological activities including anti-inflammatory,anti-microbial, anti-oxidative, anticancer and chemopreventive effects. In present study, weinvestigated auraptene effects on the expression of CSC markers, CD44 and BMI1, inesophageal stem-like cancer cells for the first time. To study auraptene effects, KYSE30 cellswere treated with non-toxic concentrations of auraptene, 10 and 20 Âμg/ml, as well as equalamount of DMSO for 48 and 72h. After the total cellular RNA was extracted and treated withDNase I, cDNAs were synthesized by M-MuLV reverse transcriptase. Real-time RT-PCRwas performed using SYBR green master mix, GAPDH transcripts were used as internalcontrol, and normalized values were plotted as relative fold change over DMSO-treated cells.Since KYSE30 cells expressed high levels of CD44 and BMI1, we examined aurapteneeffects on the expression of these CSC markers by real-time RT-PCR. Results indicated thatafter 48h incubation of cells with 20 Âμg/ml, the expression of both markers significantlydecreased; the fold changed expressions for CD44 and BMI1 were 0.19 ± 0.08 and 0.39 ±0.18, respectively. Present results indicated that auraptene downregulated the expression ofCD44 and BMI1 in esophageal stem-like cancer cells. We have previously reported thatauraptene has synergic effects on anticancer agents as well. Accordingly, it is recommendedto study auraptene effects on other CSC characteristics, such as migration and radiationresistance, in KYSE30 cells.

Keywords:

Auraptene , CD44 , BMI1 , KYSE30 Cells , Cancer Stem Cell