In order to investigate the mechanism of curcumin in reversing the resistance of non-small cell lung cancer to gefitinib,which is a kind of anticancer drug,and thus improve the efficacy of gefitinib,the A549 cell line was used as the experimental cell,and the gefitinib-resistant A549（A549／GR）cell line was successfully established.A549／GR cell line was divided into four treatment groups:control group,gefitinib group,curcumin group,and a combination group of gefitinib and curcumin.Cell Counting Kit-8（CCK-8）,colony formation,transwell,and flow cytometry were used to eval- uate the cell viability,colony formation capacity,migration,invasion,and apoptosis of A549 and A549／GR cells,respec- tively.The protein expression related to apoptosis,epithelial-mesenchymal transition（EMT）,and AKT signaling was studied using Western blot experiment,and the expression level of MET and AXL genes in A549 and A549／GR cells was de- tected by RT-PCR experiment.The results were as follows:①The combination of gefitinib and curcumin had synergistic effects,which enhanced chemosensitivity and cell apoptosis,and inhibited cell proliferation,colony formation,migration and invasion at the same time;②Western blot showed that curcumin significantly enhanced the ability of gefitinib to reverse EMT of A54／GR cells,induce apoptosis and inhibit AKT signaling;③RT-PCR experimental results showed that the up-reg- ulated MET and AXL signaling might be involved in the process of A549 cells resistant to gefitinib.In conclusion,the above results showed that curcumin could reverse the EMT of A549／GR cells through inhibiting the AKT signaling pathway,effec- tively enhance the sensitivity of cells to gefitinib,and promote the apoptosis of tumor cell.
ZHANG Minghui
,
SUN Yang
,
ZHANG Ying
,
ZHANG Weiwei
,
GU Guangyu
,
JIA Zhenghu
,
MENG Jie
,
GAO Sen
. Curcumin reverses gefitinib resistance in non-small cell lung cancer by inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition via the AKT signaling pathway[J]. Journal of Tianjin Normal University(Natural Science Edition), 2026
, 46(2)
: 1
-8
.
DOI: 10.19638/j.issn1671-1114.20260201
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