Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant diseases and frequent cause of
cancer deaths in the world. In spite of the significant advances in conventional therapeutic approaches to CRC, most patients ultimately die of their disease. There is a need to develop novel preventive approaches for this
malignancy. This study was carried out to investigate the anticancer effect of
MHY218, a
hydroxamic acid derivative, in HCT116 human
colon cancer cells. Treatment of cells with
MHY218 resulted in growth inhibition and induction of apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner.
MHY218 induced G2/M phase arrest in the cell cycle progression which was observed by flow cytometry analysis, and a decrease in the
protein expression of
cyclin B1 and its activating partners Cdc25C and Cdc2.
MHY218 also caused an increase in the expression levels of p21(WAF1/CIP1), a G2/M phase inhibitor, in a p53-independent pathway. The induction of apoptosis was observed by decreased viability, DNA fragmentation, cleavage of
poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, alteration in the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2
protein expression, and activation of
caspase-3, -8 and -9. In addition,
MHY218 treatment showed downregulation of the expression levels of the
transcription factor nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) in the nucleus, which has been reported to be implicated in the apoptotic cell death of several types of
cancer cells, suppression of TNF-α-induced NF-κB activation, inhibition of
cyclooxygenase-2 expression, repression of
matrix metalloproteinase-9 activation and decrease of
5-lipoxygenase in a concentration-dependent manner. These results suggest that
MHY218 may be a useful candidate to be used in the
chemoprevention and/or treatment of
colon cancer.