Abstract
Cancer metastasis is the primary cause of death in patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Piperine, an active nontoxic ingredient in pepper, has potent anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. However, little is known about the anti-migratory and anti-invasive effects of piperine on colorectal cancer. We demonstrated piperine inhibited the migration and invasion of colorectal cancer cells. Then, we found piperine reversed the biomarker expression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and suppressed the EMT regulator Snail. Furthermore, signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) was downregulated by piperine. Finally, STAT3 inhibitors were applied to observe the role of STAT3 in colorectal cancer migration, invasion and EMT. Collectively, piperine inhibits colorectal cancer migratory and invasive capacities through STAT3/Snail mediated EMT. Therefore, piperine could be applied as a possible therapeutic regimen for the prevention of colorectal cancer metastasis.
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Supporting information
Supplementary Table 1—Primers used for qPCR analysis.
Supplementary Figure 1—Stattic inhibits EMT, migration and invasion of colorectal cancer cells. p-STAT3, STAT3, Snail, E-cadherin and vimentin protein expression were measured by western blot assay after stattic (0.5 μM and 1.0 μM) treatment for 48 h (A). The migration and invasion capacities of the cells were observed after stattic treatment for 48 h (B), and statistics were presented in C; stattic, a specific inhibitor of STAT3; the bars in figures represent the mean ± SD; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.
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This work was supported by Guizhou Province Natural Science Foundation (No.[2020]1Y341) and Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Pathogenesis & Drug Research on Common Chronic Diseases, Guizhou Medical University.
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Song, L., Wang, Y., Zhen, Y. et al. Piperine inhibits colorectal cancer migration and invasion by regulating STAT3/Snail-mediated epithelial–mesenchymal transition. Biotechnol Lett 42, 2049–2058 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02923-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02923-z