Emerging role of berbamine as an anti-cancer agent in systemic malignancies besides chronic myeloid leukemia

Emerging role of berbamine as an anti-cancer agent in systemic malignancies besides chronic myeloid leukemia first-author †E-mail:shailendrakapoor@yahoo.com †E-mail:shailendrakapoor@yahoo.com shailendrakapoor@yahoo.com 2300 East Cary Street Richmond, VA 23223, USA 2300 East Cary Street Richmond, VA 23223, USA 1 The recent article by Liang et al. ( 2011 2011 ), published in Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B (Biomedicine & Biotechnology) , is highly interesting. Interestingly, the past few years have seen the increasing application of berbamine as an anti-cancer agent in other systemic malignancies besides chronic myeloid leukemia. For instance, berbamine administration alters the Bcl-2/Bax ratio and mitigates cell migration and thereby augments the anti-proliferative ability of trichostatin A in non-small cell lung cancers (Duan et al., 2010 2010 ). Similarly, berbamine inhibits p65 translocation, up-regulates A20 and increases the activation of the GADD45/c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway, thereby enhancing cellular apoptosis in multiple myelomas (Liang et al., 2009a 2009a ; 2009b 2009b ). Similarly, alteration of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway results in enhanced apoptosis in lymphomas (Du et al., 2010 2010 ). Similarly, the apoptotic ability of chemotherapeutic agents such as doxorubicin and carmofur is markedly enhanced by co-administration of berbamine, as a result of attenuated expression of cdc2/p34 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in affected cells (Cheng et al., 2006 2006 ; Wang S. et al., 2009 2009 ; Liu et al., 2010 2010 ). This results in accentuated G 2 /M cell cycle arrest and reversal of multidrug resistance in MCF-7/ADR breast cancer tissue (Liu et al., 2010 2010 ). Similarly apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinomas is augmented by berbamine-mediated induction of the Fas apoptotic pathway and loss in mitochondrial trans-membrane potential (Wang G.Y. et al., 2007 2007 ; 2009 2009 ). The above examples clearly illustrate the significant anti-proliferative activity of berbamine and the need for further studies to fully elaborate its anti-cancer properties. References YH Cheng , J Qi , DS Xiong , JW Liu , SL Qi , B Pan , CZ Yang , HF Zhu . Reversal of multidrug resistance in drug-resistant human breast cancer cell line MCF-7/ADR by calmodulin antagonist O -(4-ethoxyl-butyl)-berbamine . Acta Acad Med Sin , 2006 . 28 ( 2 ): 164 - 168 . (in Chinese) . 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Suppression of growth, migration and invasion of highly-metastatic human breast cancer cells by berbamine and its molecular mechanisms of action 10.1631/jzus.B1200110 2012-04-07 2012-08-21 2012-05-03 2022-01-05 Copyright © Zhejiang University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 2012 Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B (Biomedicine and Biotechnology) 09 13