Tetramethylpyrazine inhibits proliferation of colon cancer cells in vitro.

Background: Colon cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, and chemotherapy is a widely used strategy in colon cancer clinical therapy. However, chemotherapy resistance is a major cause of disease recurrence and progression in colon cancer, and thus novel drugs for treatment are urgently needed. Tetramethylpyrazine (TMP), a component of the traditional Chinese medicine Chuanxiong Hort, has been proven to exhibit a beneficial effect in tumors.

Objective: To investigate the potential anticancer activity of TMP in colon cancer and its underlying mechanisms.

Methods: Colon cancer cells were incubated with different concentrations of TMP. Cell viability was evaluated by crystal violet staining assay and cell counting kit-8 assay, and cell apoptosis and cell cycle were assessed by flow cytometry.

Results: TMP significantly inhibited the proliferation of colon cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In addition, flow cytometry revealed that TMP induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. TMP treatment caused early stage apoptosis in SW480 cells, whereas it caused late stage apoptosis in HCT116 cells.

Conclusions: Our studies demonstrated that TMP inhibits the proliferation of colon cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner by inducing apoptosis and arresting the cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase. Our findings suggest that TMP might serve as a potential novel therapeutic drug in the treatment of human colon cancer.