MiR-181a contributes to bufalin-induced apoptosis in PC-3 prostate cancer cells

Background: Bufalin is a major active compound of cinobufacini, which comes from dried toad venom and has been used for treatments of various cancers in China for many years. A number of studies have demonstrated that bufalin can induce Apoptosis in some cancers. However, effects and mechanism of bufalin on prostate Cancer cells remain unknown.

Methods: Apoptosis assay was measured by the annexin-V/PI flow cytometric assay. Western blot was used to measure Caspase-3 and Bcl-2. qRT-PCR was used to measure the relative expression of miR-181a.

Results: Bufalin was found to induce the expression of miR-181a, a small non-coding RNA believed to induce Apoptosis by repressing its target gene, Bcl-2. In prostate Cancer PC-3cell line, bufalin-induced Apoptosis can be largely attenuated by a miR-181a inhibitor, which blocked bufalin-induced Bcl-2 reduction and Caspase-3 activation.

Conclusions: Our dataindicatedthat miR-181a mediates bufalin-induced Apoptosis in PC-3 cells. Thus, we presented here a new pharmacological mechanism for bufalin in anti-tumor therapy.