Molecular Role of EGFR-MAPK Pathway in Patchouli Alcohol-Induced Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest on A549 Cells In Vitro and In Vivo

Nowadays, chemotherapy is still the main effective treatment for cancer. Herb prescriptions containing Pogostemon cablin Benth (also known as "Guang-Huo-Xiang") have been widely used in Chinese medicine today. In our research, we found that patchouli alcohol, a compound isolated from the oil of Pogostemon cablin Benth, exerted antitumor ability against human lung cancer A549 cells ability both in vitro and in vivo. MTT assay was used to assess cell viability. Hoechst 33342 staining and TUNEL cover glass staining provided the visual evidence of apoptosis. Caspase activity measurement showed that patchouli alcohol activated caspase 9 and caspase 3 of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. Consistently, patchouli alcohol inhibited the xenograft tumor in vivo. Further investigation of the underlying molecular mechanism showed that MAPK and EGFR pathway might contribute to the antitumor effect of patchouli alcohol. Our study proved that patchouli alcohol might be able to serve as a novel antitumor compound in the clinical treatment of lung cancer.