TITLE:
Crocin Inhibits the Melanoma Invasion and Metastasis by Regulating the Polarization Phenotype of Macrophage
AUTHORS:
Zhouli Shen, Yi Lu, Jie Shen, Yating Zhang, Sichen Shen
KEYWORDS:
Melanoma, Crocin, Macrophage, Invasion and Metastasis, MMP-2/9
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.6 No.11,
November
26,
2019
ABSTRACT: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), especially the extractive, has been ex-tensively used in clinical practices and proven to be effective against cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms remain to be investigated. In this study, we evaluated the anti-melanoma activity of the extractive Crocin (CRO) from the Chinese herbals saffron. After corresponding time of oral administration, CRO can’t obviously decrease the proliferation on human melanoma cells A375. In contrast, it can increase the proliferative activity on RAW264.7 cells and induce the activation of RAW264.7 cells. According to this, we found that it can reduce the differentiation of RAW264.7 cells into CD163 CD206 mac-rophages and augment the cytokines associated with the secretion of M1-like phenotype on IL-1β, TNF-α. Similarly, we also found that CRO regulated the MMP-2/9 signaling to inhibit the melanoma invasion on modeling the macro-phage phenotypes. This will provide a new direction for our future anti-tumor research work in TCM, and will also help provide more feasible treatment op-tions for cancer clinics.