title: Transcriptional profiling of breast cancer cells in response to mevinolin: Evidence of cell cycle arrest, DNA degradation and apoptosis.
abstract: The merging of high-throughput gene expression techniques, such as microarray, in the screening of natural products as anticancer agents, is considered the optimal solution for gaining a better understanding of the intervention mechanism. Red yeast rice (RYR), a Chinese dietary product, contains a mixture of hypocholesterolemia agents such as statins. Typically, statins have this effect via the inhibition of HMG‑CoA reductase, the key enzyme in the biosynthesis of cholesterol. Recently, statins have been shown to exhibit various beneficial antineoplastic properties through the disruption of tumor angiogenesis and metastatic processes. Mevinolin (MVN) is a member of statins and is abundantly present in RYR. Early experimental trials suggested that the mixed apoptotic/necrotic cell death pathway is activated in response to MVN exposure. In the current study, the cytotoxic profile of MVN was evaluated against MCF‑7, a breast cancer‑derived cell line. The obtained results indicated that MVN‑induced cytotoxicity is multi‑factorial involving several regulatory pathways in the cytotoxic effects of MVN on breast cancer cell lines. In addition, MVN‑induced transcript abundance profiles inferred from microarrays showed significant changes in some key cell processes. The changes were predicted to induce cell cycle arrest and reactive oxygen species generation but inhibit DNA repair and cell proliferation. This MVN‑mediated multi‑factorial stress triggered specific programmed cell death (apoptosis) and DNA degradation responses in breast cancer cells. Taken together, the observed MVN‑induced effects underscore the potential of this ubiquitous natural compound as a selective anticancer activity, with broad safety margins and low cost compared to benchmarked traditional synthetic chemotherapeutic agents. Additionally, the data support further pre‑clinical and clinical evaluations of MVN as a novel strategy to combat breast cancer and overcome drug resistance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ali M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mahmoud
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mourad A M
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Aboul-Soud
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305‑8572, Japan.
authors.forename: Junkyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Chair of Medical and Molecular Genetics Research, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11433, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Yazeed A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Al-Sheikh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Medical Division, National Research Centre, Cairo 21622, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ahmed M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Al-Abd
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt.
authors.forename: Hany A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: El-Shemy
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017209:Apoptosis; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics*; D059447:Cell Cycle Checkpoints / Q000187:drug effects*; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D053938:DNA Fragmentation / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008148:Lovastatin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D008148:Lovastatin