Skin cancer chemopreventive effects of a flavonoid antioxidant silymarin are mediated via impairment of receptor tyrosine kinase signaling and perturbation in cell cycle progression.

Enhanced tyrosine kinase activity due to aberrant or overexpression of receptor and/or non-receptor tyrosine kinases has been implicated in a variety of human malignancies including cutaneous neoplasms. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation may be a primary indicator of signal transduction regulating cell growth and proliferation. Recent studies have shown that skin tumor promoters such as phorbol ester and ultraviolet B radiation activate EGFR in mouse skin as well as in cell culture. Similarly, oxidative stress, which is implicated in skin tumor promotion, also activates EGFR-mediated cell signaling. Since this signaling pathway has been suggested to be involved in skin tumor promotion, its impairment by antioxidants may lead to an efficient way for skin cancer prevention and therapy. Recently, we showed that silymarin, a flavonoid antioxidant, affords exceptionally high to complete protection against several skin tumor promoters caused tumor promotion in mouse skin. Employing human epidermoid carcinoma cells A431 that contain overexpressed EGFR, in this study, we assessed whether the anti-skin tumor promoting effects of silymarin are due to its inhibitory effect on EGFR activation and down stream signaling pathway leading to perturbations in cell cycle progression. Treatment of cells with silymarin resulted in a significant inhibition of ligand-induced activation of EGFR with no change in its protein levels. Silymarin treatment also resulted in a significant decrease in tyrosine phosphorylation of Shc, an immediate downstream target of EGFR, but no change in the protein levels of Shc. The inhibition of EGFR activation by silymarin was associated with a highly significant to complete inhibition of EGFR intrinsic kinase activity. Cells treated with silymarin also showed a significant G2-M arrest in cell cycle progression, and a highly significant inhibition of DNA synthesis and cell growth in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, these results suggest that skin cancer chemopreventive effects of silymarin are mediated via impairment of EGFR signaling which ultimately leads to perturbation in cell cycle progression resulting in the inhibition of proliferation and induction of growth arrest.

Ahmad N ，Gali H ，Javed S ，Agarwal R ... -  《BIOCHEMICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS》

A flavonoid antioxidant, silymarin, inhibits activation of erbB1 signaling and induces cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, G1 arrest, and anticarcinogenic effects in human prostate carcinoma DU145 cells.

Zi X ，Grasso AW ，Kung HJ ，Agarwal R ... -  《CANCER RESEARCH》

Significant inhibition by the flavonoid antioxidant silymarin against 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate-caused modulation of antioxidant and inflammatory enzymes, and cyclooxygenase 2 and interleukin-1alpha expression in SENCAR mouse epidermis: implica

The flavonoid antioxidant silymarin is used clinically in Europe and Asia for the treatment of liver diseases and is sold in the United States and Europe as a dietary supplement. Recently we showed that silymarin possesses exceptionally high cancer-preventive effects in different mouse skin carcinogenesis models and affords strong anticancer effects in human skin, cervical, prostate, and breast carcinoma cells. More recently, we showed that the anti-tumor-promoting effect of silymarin is primarily targeted against stage I tumor promotion in mouse skin (Cancer Res 1999;59:622-632). Based on this recent study, in this report, further investigations were made to identify and define the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of silymarin's effect during stage I tumor promotion in mouse skin. A single topical application of silymarin at 3-, 6-, and 9-mg doses onto SENCAR mouse skin followed 30 min later with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) at a 3-microg dose resulted in a 76-95% inhibition (P < 0.001) of TPA-caused skin edema. Similarly, these doses of silymarin also showed 39-90%, 29-85%, and 15-67% protection (P < 0.05 or 0.001), against TPA-caused depletion of epidermal superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase activity, respectively. Pretreatment of mice with silymarin also produced highly significant inhibition of TPA-caused induction of epidermal lipid peroxidation (47-66% inhibition, P < 0.001) and myeloperoxidase activity (56-100% inhibition, P < 0.001). In additional studies assessing the effect of silymarin on arachidonic acid metabolism pathways involving lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase (COX), similar doses of silymarin showed highly significant inhibition of TPA-caused induction of epidermal lipoxygenase (49-77% inhibition, P < 0.001) and COX (35-64% inhibition, P < 0.01 or 0.001) activity. Western immunoblot analysis showed that the observed effect of silymarin on COX activity was due to inhibition of TPA-inducible COX-2 with no change in constitutive COX-1 protein levels. In other studies, silymarin also showed dose-dependent inhibition of TPA-caused induction of epidermal interleukin 1alpha (IL-1alpha) protein (39-72% inhibition, P < 0.005 or 0.001) and mRNA expression. Taken together, the results from these biochemical and molecular studies further substantiate our recent observation of silymarin's anti-tumor-promoting effects primarily at stage I tumor promotion. Furthermore, the observed inhibitory effects of silymarin on COX-2 and IL-1alpha should be further explored to develop preventive strategies against those cancers in which these molecular targets play one of the causative roles, such as non-melanoma skin, colon, and breast cancers in humans.

Zhao J ，Sharma Y ，Agarwal R 《MOLECULAR CARCINOGENESIS》

A flavonoid antioxidant, silymarin, affords exceptionally high protection against tumor promotion in the SENCAR mouse skin tumorigenesis model.

Lahiri-Chatterjee M ，Katiyar SK ，Mohan RR ，Agarwal R ... -  《CANCER RESEARCH》

Blockade of the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase activity by quercetin and luteolin leads to growth inhibition and apoptosis of pancreatic tumor cells.

Lee LT ，Huang YT ，Hwang JJ ，Lee PP ，Ke FC ，Nair MP ，Kanadaswam C ，Lee MT ... -  《ANTICANCER RESEARCH》