Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common malignant tumor of the digestive system that can seriously threaten human health. Chinese matrine is known to have a wide range of antiviral and immunomodulatory effects. In this study, we evaluated the effect of matrine on ferroptosis using the HCT116 human colon cancer cell line. We evaluated cell viability and proliferation using the cell counting kit-8 assay and carried out cell clone formation experiment by measuring reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, as well as levels of glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxide (MDA), Fe²⁺, glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4), solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11), transferrin receptor protein 2 (TFR2), and Sigma-1 receptor (Sigma-1R) in order to evaluate the redox status of cells. These results indicate that matrine can significantly reduce the cell viability of HCT116 and decrease cell proliferation. After treatment with matrine, ROS, Fe²⁺, and MDA levels increased significantly, while the GSH content decreased. In addition, the expression of GPX4, SLC7A11, and Sigma-1R decreased significantly, while the expression of ATF4 and TFR2 increased significantly. These results indicate that matrine can induce ferroptosis in CRC, which can provide new clues for further pharmacological research of matrine and provide experimental evidence for understanding its mechanism of inhibiting CRC.

大肠癌（CRC）是消化系统的常见恶性肿瘤，可严重威胁人类健康。众所周知，苦参碱具有广泛的抗病毒和免疫调节作用。在这项研究中，我们使用HCT116人结肠癌细胞系评估了苦参碱对肥大症的作用。我们使用细胞计数试剂盒8分析法评估了细胞活力和增殖，并通过测量活性氧（ROS）的产生以及谷胱甘肽（GSH），脂质过氧化物（MDA），Fe ^2+的水平进行了细胞克隆形成实验，谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶4（GPX4），活化转录因子4（ATF4），溶质载体家族7成员11（SLC7A11），转铁蛋白受体蛋白2（TFR2）和Sigma-1受体（Sigma-1R），以评估氧化还原细胞状态。这些结果表明苦参碱可显着降低HCT116的细胞活力并降低细胞增殖。用苦参碱，ROS，Fe ^2+处理后，并且MDA含量显着增加，而GSH含量则下降。此外，GPX4，SLC7A11和Sigma-1R的表达显着下降，而ATF4和TFR2的表达则显着增加。这些结果表明，苦参碱可以诱导CRC的肥大症，这可以为苦参碱的进一步药理研究提供新的线索，并为了解其抑制CRC的机制提供实验依据。