title: Myricetin suppresses invasion and migration of human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells: possible mediation by blocking the ERK signaling pathway.
abstract: Cancer metastasis, involving multiple processes and various cytophysiological changes, is a primary cause of cancer death and may complicate clinical management, even leading to death. Myricetin (3,5,7,3',4',5'-hexahydroxyflavone), a naturally occurring flavonoid, has various anticancer activities. This is the first study to explore the antimetastatic effect of myricetin in human adenocarcinoma A549 cells in vitro. First, myricetin exerted a dose- and time-dependent inhibitory effect on the adhesion, invasion, and migration of A549 cells in the absence of cytotoxicity. Gelatin or casein zymography assays showed that myricetin inhibited the matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and urokinase-plasminogen activator (u-PA) activities of A549 cells. Moreover, myricetin also exerted an inhibitory effect on the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) and inhibition of activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB), c-Fos, and c-Jun. Treatment with myricetin of A549 cells also led to a dose-dependent effect on the binding abilities of NF-kappaB and AP-1. Furthermore, the ERK inhibitor (U0126) could result in reduced activities of MMP-2 and u-PA concomitantly with a marked inhibition on cell invasion and migration. These results demonstrated that the inhibition of MMP-2 and u-PA expression by myricetin may be through a suppression on ERK1/2 phosphorylation and inhibit A549 cells invasion and migration. As shown by the above results, myricetin may be a powerful candidate in developing preventive agents for cancer metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science and Technology and Institute of Biomedical Science, Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology, No. 89 Wen-Hwa First Street, Jen-Te, Tainan 717, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Yuan-Wei
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Pei-Fen
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yi-Chieh
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Ming-Der
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Tai-An
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Chiang