title: Inhibition of Human Pancreatic Cancer Cell Proliferation by Devil's Club Oplopanax horridus and Its Polyacetylene Bioactive Compound.
abstract: Devil's club Oplopanax horridus (DC) is a close relative of ginseng; its inner root and stem bark extract showed antiproliferation activity on human leukemia, ovarian, breast and colon cancer cells. We study here the effects of DC 70% ethanol extract alone, or in combination with cisplatin, gemcitabine, and paclitaxel on pancreatic endocrine HP62 and pancreatic ductal carcinoma PANC-1 and BxPC-3 cells. Antiproliferation activity assay, cell cycle analysis by flow cytometry, apoptosis-related markers by antibody array, and RT-PCR assay were used for this study. DC extract inhibited proliferation of HP62 with IC50 (50% inhibition concentration) at 0.037±0.002% (v/v), PANC-1 at 0.0058 ± 0.0004% and BxPC-3 at 0.021 ± 0.003%. DC at 0.0033% combined with 1 nM of paclitaxel showed inhibition synergy on PANC-1 cells with a combination index of 0.44. Apoptosis focused antibody array profile indicated upregulation of cytochrome C, claspin, cIAP-2 and HTRA2/Omi apoptosis-related markers in DC-treated HP62 and PANC-1. Our data suggest that DC acts through targeting the intrinsic mitochondrial apoptosis pathway in the pancreatic cancer cells. The high antiproliferation potency of DC on PANC-1 is potentially useful as an adjunct therapy for treating pancreatic cancer, which is known for developing resistance to conventional chemotherapeutics.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Surgery , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada 
authors.forename: Susan S C
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tai
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hasman
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.forename: Garth L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Warnock
mesh_terms: D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic / Q000494:pharmacology; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000494:pharmacology; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D028002:Oplopanax / Q000737:chemistry*; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000494:pharmacology; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry; D053279:Polyynes / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D000093542:Gemcitabine
chemical_list: D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; D010936:Plant Extracts; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D053279:Polyynes; D017239:Paclitaxel; D002945:Cisplatin; D000093542:Gemcitabine