Inhibitory effect of dantron on proliferation and invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells MCF-7 and its mechanism

Objective To study the inhibitory effect of dantron on MCF-7 proliferation, invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells, and to explore its mechanism. Methods CCK-8 assay was used to detect the effect of dantron at different concentrations(10,20, 40, 60, 80, 100 μmol/L) on MCF-7 proliferation of breast cancer cells for 24 and 48 h. Transwell assay investigated the effect of dantron on the invasion and metastasis of MCF-7 in breast cancer cells. Real-time fluorescence equivalent PCR(RT-qPCR) used to detect the expression levels of c-Myc、Cyclin D1 mRNA, and Western blotting were used to detect the protein expression levels of p-AMPKα, ACC, c-Myc and Cyclin D1. Results Different concentrations of dantron inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 in breast cancer cells at different time, and 20, 40 μmol/L dantron can significantly inhibited the invasion and metastasis of MCF-7 in breast cancer cells, activate the expression of p-AMPKα, inhibited the expression of ACC, c-Myc, Cyclin D1 genes, and thereby inhibit the proliferation of MCF-7 in breast cancer cells. Conclusion Dantron can inhibit the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of MCF-7 in breast cancer cells, and its mechanism may be related to the activation of AMPK signaling pathway to inhibit the expression of cMyc, Cyclin D1 proliferation-related genes.