title: A natural food sweetener with anti-pancreatic cancer properties.
abstract: Mogroside V is a triterpenoid isolated from the traditional Chinese medical plant Siraitia grosvenorii. Mogroside V has a high degree of sweetness and a low calorific content. Herein, we found that mogroside V possesses tumor growth inhibitory activity in in vitro and in vivo models of pancreatic cancer by promoting apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of pancreatic cancer cells (PANC-1 cells), which may in part be mediated through regulating the STAT3 signaling pathway. These results were confirmed in vivo in a mouse xenograft model of pancreatic cancer. In xenograft tumors, Ki-67 and PCNA, the most commonly used markers of tumor cell proliferation, were downregulated after intravenous administration of mogroside V. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assays showed that mogroside V treatment promoted apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells in the xenograft tumors. Furthermore, we found that mogroside V treatment significantly reduced the expression of CD31-labeled blood vessels and of the pro-angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor in the xenografts, indicating that mogroside V might limit the growth of pancreatic tumors by inhibiting angiogenesis and reducing vascular density. These results therefore demonstrate that the natural, sweet-tasting compound mogroside V can inhibit proliferation and survival of pancreatic cancer cells via targeting multiple biological targets.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (North) of Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China.|National Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Enzymes, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Enzymes, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: L-H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (North) of Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: D-Q
authors.initials: DQ
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (North) of Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: L-Q
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Enzymes, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Y-X
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Sun