Melatonin enhances the anti-tumor effect of fisetin by inhibiting COX-2/iNOS and NF-κB/p300 signaling pathways

PLoS One. 2014 Jul 7;9(7):e99943. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099943. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Melatonin is a hormone identified in plants and pineal glands of mammals and possesses diverse physiological functions. Fisetin is a bio-flavonoid widely found in plants and exerts antitumor activity in several types of human cancers. However, the combinational effect of melatonin and fisetin on antitumor activity, especially in melanoma treatment, remains unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that melatonin could enhance the antitumor activity of fisetin in melanoma cells and identified the underlying molecular mechanisms. The combinational treatment of melanoma cells with fisetin and melatonin significantly enhanced the inhibitions of cell viability, cell migration and clone formation, and the induction of apoptosis when compared with the treatment of fisetin alone. Moreover, such enhancement of antitumor effect by melatonin was found to be mediated through the modulation of the multiply signaling pathways in melanoma cells. The combinational treatment of fisetin with melatonin increased the cleavage of PARP proteins, triggered more release of cytochrome-c from the mitochondrial inter-membrane, enhanced the inhibition of COX-2 and iNOS expression, repressed the nuclear localization of p300 and NF-κB proteins, and abrogated the binding of NF-κB on COX-2 promoter. Thus, these results demonstrated that melatonin potentiated the anti-tumor effect of fisetin in melanoma cells by activating cytochrome-c-dependent apoptotic pathway and inhibiting COX-2/iNOS and NF-κB/p300 signaling pathways, and our study suggests the potential of such a combinational treatment of natural products in melanoma therapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology
  • Apoptosis / drug effects
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Movement / drug effects
  • Cell Proliferation / drug effects
  • Cyclooxygenase 2 / metabolism*
  • Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors / pharmacology
  • Drug Synergism
  • E1A-Associated p300 Protein / metabolism*
  • Flavonoids / pharmacology*
  • Flavonols
  • Humans
  • Melanoma / pathology
  • Melatonin / pharmacology*
  • NF-kappa B / metabolism*
  • Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects*

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors
  • Flavonoids
  • Flavonols
  • NF-kappa B
  • Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II
  • Cyclooxygenase 2
  • E1A-Associated p300 Protein
  • EP300 protein, human
  • Melatonin
  • fisetin

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81301721, 81071687, 81272195); the Education Department of Liaoning Province, China (the “Program for Pan-Deng scholars”; the “Program for Liaoning Excellent Talents in University”). Authors who received the funding: Wuguo Deng. URLs of funder's website: http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/; or http://www.lnen.cn/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.