AUTHOR=Park Moon Nyeo , Jeon Hee Won , Rahman Md. Ataur , Park Se Sun , Jeong Se Yun , Kim Ki Hyun , Kim Sung-Hoon , Kim Woojin , Kim Bonglee 

TITLE=Daemonorops draco Blume Induces Apoptosis Against Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells via Regulation of the miR-216b/c-Jun

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2022.808174

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2022.808174

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=Daemonorops draco Blume (DD), also called dragon's blood, has been used as a traditional Korean medicine especially for analgesic due to wound infection. Recently, the effect of DD was identified in relation with anti-bacterial and anti-analgesic efficacies. In this study, the underlying anti-cancer effect was investigated in associated with apoptosis in U937 (acute myeloid leukemia cell) and THP-1 (acute myeloid leukemia cell). DD exhibited cytotoxic effect and induced apoptosis in U937 and THP-1 cells. Conversely, depletion of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ) (MMP) decreased by DD treatment. The protein expression of cleaved Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), cleaved caspase-3, p-H2A.X, CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-homologous protein (CHOP) and activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) were upregulated by DD treatment. Consistently, DD treated cells elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in a concentration dependent manner via miR-216b activation in association with inhibition of c-Jun. N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) pretreatment was found to reverse cytotoxic effect and ROS generation by DD treatment. Additionally, the expression of miR-216b was increased by DD treatment in a dose-dependent manner. Collectively, our study suggestes that anti-cancer effect of DD subsequently promoted CHOP-dependent apoptosis along with ROS generation via upregulation of miR-216b against acute myeloid leukemia.