Feiyanning Decoction down-regulates the expressions of phosphorylated Akt and hypoxia inducible factor-1α proteins in transplanted lung adenocarcinoma in nude mice

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of Feiyanning Decoction, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, in inhibiting the growth of transplanted A549 tumors in nude mice and the expressions of p-Akt and HIF-1alpha in A549 tumors. METHODS: Thirty-two nude mice were transplanted with human lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549 cells) to make the mice model, and then randomly divided into four groups: untreated group (n=8), diamminedichloroplatinum (DDP) group (n=8), Feiyanning group (n=8) and DDP plus Feiyanning group (n=8). The nude mice in DDP group and DDP plus Feiyanning group were treated with DDP 0.1 mg by peritoneal injection on the 1st, 3rd and 5th day after model establishment. The nude mice in the Feiyanning group and the DDP plus Feiyanning group were treated with Feiyanning Decoction for 21 days. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of HIF-1alpha mRNA in tumors, and immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expressions of p-Akt and HIF-1alpha proteins in tumors. RESULTS: The inhibition rates of tumor in Feiyanning group and DDP plus Feiyanning group were 34.17% and 64.38% respectively. RT-PCR showed that the expression level of HIF-1alpha mRNA in DDP plus Feiyanning group was lower than that in the untreated group (P<0.05). Immunohistochemical staining showed that the optical density (OD) indexes of HIF-1alpha in DDP group, Feiyanning group and DDP plus Feiyanning group were lower than that in the untreated group (P<0.01). The expressions of p-Akt in the Feiyanning group and DDP plus Feiyanning group were lower than that in the untreated group either (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Feiyanning Decoction is effective in inhibiting the growth of lung cancer. And the effect of inhibiting the expression of HIF-1alpha protein by Feiyanning Decoction may correlate with down-regulation of p-Akt.