Despite dramatic advances in
cancer therapy, the overall prognosis of
glioblastoma (GBM) remains dismal.
Nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) has been previously demonstrated to be constitutively activated in
glioblastoma, and it was suggested as a potential therapeutic target.
Glycyrrhizic acid (GA) has been proved to have cytotoxic effects in many
cancer cell lines. However, its role in
glioblastoma has not yet been addressed. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of GA on human
glioblastoma U251 cell line. The effects of GA on proliferation of U251 cells were measured by
CCK-8 assay and plate colony-forming test. Cellular apoptosis was detected by
Hoechst 33258 fluorescent staining and flow cytometry with
annexin V-FITC/PI dual staining. The expression of nuclear p65
protein, the active subunit of NF-κB, was determined by Western blot and immunofluorescence. Our results demonstrated that the survival rate and colony formation of U251 cells significantly decreased in a time- and dose-dependent manner after GA addition, and the apoptotic ratio of GA-treated groups was significantly higher than that of control groups. Furthermore, the expression of NF-κB-p65 in the nucleus was remarkably reduced after GA treatment. In conclusion, our findings suggest that GA treatment can confer inhibitory effects on human
glioblastoma U251 cell line including inhibiting proliferation and inducing apoptosis, which is possibly related to the NF-κB mediated pathway.