Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a leading cause of
cancer-related deaths worldwide. It has a very poor prognosis with over a 5-year survival rate of only 50%. Thus, it is important to identify effective therapeutic interventions against
oral cancer. Apoptosis and autophagy have reported genetically regulated in physiology and diseases, which close relationship. Many natural compound study objects anticancer effect have been studied between apoptosis and autophagy relationship. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of
erianin on human
oral cancer cell proliferation. Results of the study revealed that treatment with
erianin significantly reduced the viability of different OSCC cell lines.
Erianin exerted its cytotoxic effect by inducing cell cycle arrest and
caspase-dependent apoptotic pathways. Both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways were found to be involved in
erianin-mediated cell death. In addition, treatment with
erianin also increased autophagy in OSCC cells. With further analysis, it was found that
erianin induced both apoptosis and autophagy by regulating MAPK signaling pathways. Taken together, our study indicates that
erianin plays an important role in reducing
oral cancer cell viability, and thus, can be considered as a potential
anticancer agent.