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Caffeic acid phenethyl ester activates pro-apoptotic and epithelial–mesenchymal transition-related genes in ovarian cancer cells A2780 and A2780cis

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Abstract

Ovarian cancer is a highly aggressive pathology, displaying a poor prognosis and chemoresistance to classical therapy. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) on survival of ovarian cancer cell lines, A2780 (sensitive to cisplatin) and A2780cis (resistant to cisplatin). MTT assay was used to evaluate cell viability, while the apoptotic processes were examined by flow cytometry and qRT-PCR. A reduction of cell proliferation and activation of the apoptosis was observed in both cell lines. qRT-PCR evaluation demonstrated the activation of the pro-apoptotic genes (BAD, CASP8, FAS, FADD, p53) in both cell lines. The limited therapeutic effect in A2780 cells is explained by the activation of epithelial–mesenchymal transition-related genes (ZEB1, ZEB2, or TGFBB1) as displayed by Ingenuity Network analysis. Overall data suggest that CAPE can be used as an alternative in sensitizing cells to chemotherapy.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Gherman and Dr. Braicu received a fellowship financed by the Grant No. 159/1.5/s/138776 with title ‘Institutional collaborative model of biomedical scientific research transposed in clinical practice—TRANSCENT’.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Functional Genomics and Experimental Pathology, The Oncology Institute “Prof Dr. Ion Chiricuta”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

      Claudia Gherman, Flaviu Drigla & Ioana Berindan-Neagoe

    2. Research Center for Functional Genomics, Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

      Claudia Gherman, Ovidiu Leonard Braicu, Oana Zanoaga, Anca Jurj, Valentina Pileczki, Cornelia Braicu, Liviuta Budisan & Ioana Berindan-Neagoe

    3. Department of Surgery, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

      Ovidiu Leonard Braicu & Patriciu Achimas-Cadariu

    4. Department of Surgical Oncology, The Oncological Institute “Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

      Ovidiu Leonard Braicu & Patriciu Achimas-Cadariu

    5. Department of Molecular Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey

      Mahafarin Maralani

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    Claudia Gherman, Ovidiu Leonard Braicu have contributed equally to this work.

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    Gherman, C., Braicu, O.L., Zanoaga, O. et al. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester activates pro-apoptotic and epithelial–mesenchymal transition-related genes in ovarian cancer cells A2780 and A2780cis. Mol Cell Biochem 413, 189–198 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-015-2652-3

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