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RETRACTED ARTICLE: Lupeol inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis of human pancreatic cancer PCNA-1 cells through AKT/ERK pathways

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This article was retracted on 01 July 2021

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Abstract

Lupeol, a dietary triterpene, present in many fruits and medicinal plants, has been reported to possess many pharmacological properties including anti-cancer activities both in vitro and in vivo. However, the precise mechanism involved remains largely unknown. The present study is conducted to investigate the anti-cancer activity and the underlying mechanisms of lupeol on human pancreatic cancer proliferating cell nuclear antigen 1 (PCNA-1) cells in vitro and in vivo. Lupeol significantly inhibited the proliferation of the cells in dose- and time-dependent manners and induced apoptosis as well as cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase by upregulating P21 and P27 and downregulating cyclin D1. The expression of apoptosis-related proteins in cells was evaluated by western blot analysis, and we found that lupeol induced cell apoptosis by decreasing the levels of p-AKT and p-ERK. In addition, pretreatment with a specific PI3K/AKT activator (IGF-1) significantly neutralized the pro-apoptotic activity of lupeol in PCNA-1 cells, demonstrating the important role of AKT in this process. More importantly, our in vivo studies showed that administration of lupeol decreased tumor growth in a dose-dependent manner. Immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated the downregulation of p-AKT and p-ERK in tumor tissues following lupeol treatment, consistent with the in vitro results. Therefore, these findings indicate that lupeol can inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis as well as cell cycle arrest of PCNA-1 cells and might offer a therapeutic potential advantage for human pancreatic cancer chemoprevention or chemotherapy.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Program for Young Scientist in Science and Education of Suzhou City (No.KJXW2014053), the Program for Young Scientist in Science and Education of Wujiang District (No.WWK201415)

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, Wujiang No.1 People’s Hospital, Suzhou, 215200, China

    Yan Liu, Gang Wang, Wei Dai, Guoliang Wu, Liqiang Qian, Quangen Gao & Genhai Shen

  2. Department of Geriatric Ward, Wujiang No.1 People’s Hospital, Suzhou, 215200, China

    Tingting Bi

Authors
  1. Yan Liu
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  2. Tingting Bi
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  3. Gang Wang
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  4. Wei Dai
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  5. Guoliang Wu
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  6. Liqiang Qian
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  7. Quangen Gao
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  8. Genhai Shen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Quangen Gao or Genhai Shen.

Additional information

Yan Liu and Tingting Bi contributed equally to this work.

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Liu, Y., Bi, T., Wang, G. et al. RETRACTED ARTICLE: Lupeol inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis of human pancreatic cancer PCNA-1 cells through AKT/ERK pathways. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 388, 295–304 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-014-1071-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-014-1071-4

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