Alpinetin inhibits lung cancer progression and elevates sensitization drug-resistant lung cancer cells to cis-diammined dichloridoplatium

OBJECTIVE Alpinetin is a novel flavonoid that has demonstrated potent antitumor activity in previous studies. However, the efficacy and mechanism of alpinetin in treating lung cancer have not been determined. METHODS We evaluated the impact of different doses and durations of alpinetin treatment on the cell proliferation, the apoptosis of lung cancer cells, as well as the drug-resistant lung cancer cells. RESULTS This study showed that the alpinetin inhibited the cell proliferation, enhanced the apoptosis, and inhibited the PI3K/Akt signaling in lung cancer cells. Moreover, alpinetin significantly increased the sensitivity of drug-resistant lung cancer cells to the chemotherapeutic effect of cis-diammined dichloridoplatium. Taken together, this study demonstrated that alpinetin significantly suppressed the development of human lung cancer possibly by influencing mitochondria and the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and sensitized drug-resistant lung cancer cells. CONCLUSION Alpinetin may be used as a potential compound for combinatorial therapy or as a complement to other chemotherapeutic agents when multiple lines of treatments have failed to reduce lung cancer.