Astragaloside IV inhibits the proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of oral cancer cells by aggravating autophagy

Abstract

Oral cancer is one usual tumor that sorely affects the health of people and even result into death. Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) is one of the major components of Astragalus membranaceus extract, and has been identified to exhibit ameliorative functions in some cancers. Nevertheless, the regulatory impacts and correlative pathways of AS-IV in oral cancer remain vague. In this study, it was discovered that cell growth was gradually weakened with the increased dose of AS-IV (25, 50 and 100 μM). Additionally, it was uncovered that AS-IV restrained the EMT progress in oral cancer. The cell migration and invasion abilities were both gradually alleviated after AS-IV treatment in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, AS-IV accelerated autophagy through intensifying LC3II/LC3I level and LC3B fluorescence intensity. At last, it was clarified that AS-IV triggered the AMPK pathway and retarded the AKT/mTOR pathway. In conclusion, AS-IV restrained cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) progress in oral cancer by aggravating autophagy through modulating the AMPK and AKT/mTOR pathways. This work may offer novel evidence on AS-IV in the treatment of oral cancer.