Berberine Reverses Hypoxia-induced Chemoresistance in Breast Cancer through the Inhibition of AMPK- HIF-1α.

ABSTRACT: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in American women. Chemoresistance is common and inevitable after a variable period of time. Therefore, chemosensitization is a necessary strategy on drug-resistant breast cancer. In this study, MCF-7 breast cancer cell was cultured under hypoxia for a week to induce the resistance to doxorubincin (DOX). The effect of different doses of berberine, a traditional Chinese medicine, on DOX sensitivity to MFC-7/hypoxia cells was observed. We found that hypoxia increased DOX resistance on breast cancer cells with the AMPK activation. Low-dose berberine could resensitize DOX chemosensitivity in MCF-7/hypoxia cell, however, high-dose berberine directly induced apoptosis. The intriguing fact was that the pr

SUBMITTER: Pan Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5485634 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature