Matrine inhibits proliferation and promotes autophagy and apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer cells by deactivating PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway

To investigate the inhibitory effect of matrine on the proliferation of human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and explore the possible molecular mechanism. Cultured human NSCLC A549 cells were treated with 0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6, and 2.0 g/L matrine for 24, 48 or 72 h. CCK-8 assay was used for measuring the changes in A549 cell viability. The morphological changes of the cells were observed under a fluorescence microscope, and flow cytometry was employed for analyzing the cell apoptosis. The effects of matrine and the PI3K specific inhibitor LY294002 (10 nmol/L) on AKT pathway and autophagy-related proteins in A549 cells were investigated using Western blotting. Matrine significantly inhibited the proliferation of A549 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner ( < 0.05). At the concentration of 1.6 g/L or higher, matrine caused obvious cell shrinkage and fragmentation and significantly increased floating cells; autophagy vacuoles could be observed in the cells after acridine orange staining. Within the concentrations range of 0.8-1.6 g/L, matrine time- and dosedependently increased the cell apoptosis. Treatment of the cells with 1.6 g/L matrine and 10 nmol/L LY294002 resulted in significantly lowered expressions of p-AKT and p-mTOR proteins and increased the expression of light chain 3B (LC 3B), an autophagy-related protein, as compared with those in the control cells ( < 0.05). We demonstrate that matrine inhibits the proliferation and induces autophagy and apoptosis of A549 cells by deactivating AKT pathway, suggesting the potential of matrine as an anti-cancer agent for lung cancer.