[1]Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Department of Pathology,Shanghai,China
[2]Southeast University, Department of Hematology and Oncology,Nanjing,China
[3]Southeast University, Department of Pulmonary Medicine,Nanjing,China
[4]Southeast University, Department of Pathology and Pathophysiology,Nanjing,China
[5]Southeast University, Respiratory Diseases Department,Nanjing,China
[6]Kanion Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.,,China
[7]Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, State Key Laboratory of New-tech for Chinese Medicine Pharmaceutical Process,,China
[8]Southeast University, Department of Hematology and Oncology (Key Department of Jiangsu Medicine),Nanjing,China
Gambogic acid (GA) is one of the important active ingredients of gamboge. Our study examined the expression of transferrin receptors (TFR) on the cell surface of human lung SPC-A1 and SK-MES-1 cells and measured their GA-induced apoptosis rate. The results showed that SPC-A1 cells with a higher TFR expression were more sensitive at the same GA concentrations. To examine its distribution in cultured cells and study the mechanisms of apoptosis, we labeled GA with a 12SI tracer and examined the expression of apoptosis-related proteins. We found that GA uptake into SPC-A1 cells was higher than into SK-MES-1 cells; apoptosis-related proteins Caspase 2, Caspase 9, Caspase 10, Bax and p53 were involved in GA-induced apoptosis. We conclude that GA has an apoptosis-promoting effect on non small cell lung cancer cells. In clinical practice, the histopathological quantitation of TFR expression levels in tumor tissues may become a predictor of the sensitivity of patients' tumors to GA treatment. ? E.S.I.F.T. srl.