Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 21, 2023; 29(27): 4317-4333
Published online Jul 21, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i27.4317
18β-glycyrrhetinic acid promotes gastric cancer cell autophagy and inhibits proliferation by regulating miR-328-3p/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3
Yi Yang, Yi Nan, Yu-Hua Du, Shi-Cong Huang, Dou-Dou Lu, Jun-Fei Zhang, Xia Li, Yan Chen, Lei Zhang, Ling Yuan
Yi Yang, Yu-Hua Du, Shi-Cong Huang, Dou-Dou Lu, Xia Li, Ling Yuan, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China
Yi Nan, Jun-Fei Zhang, Yan Chen, Lei Zhang, Key Laboratory of Ningxia Minority Medicine Modernization Ministry of Education, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Yang Y carried out most of the studies, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Nan Y designed the study and revised the manuscript; Nan Y, Du YH and Huang SC wrote the manuscript and carried out the chart-making work; Lu DD and Li X were responsible for the total transcriptomic and bioinformatics analyses; Zhang JF performed parts of the in vivo and in vitro experiments and conducted statistical analyses of the data; Yuan L supervised the process of research and provided clinical guidance; Yuan L, Zhang L and Chen Y provided the conceptual and technical guidance as well as revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; All authors have read and approved the manuscript.
Supported by Ningxia Medical University Project, No. XZ2021005; Ningxia Natural Science Foundation, Nos. 2022AAC03144 and 2022AAC02039; and National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82260879.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Ningxia Medical University (No. 2021-X003, No. 2021-N0063, Nos. 2021-N001 and 2022-G089).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Ningxia Medical University (IACUC-NYLAC-2022-108).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report having no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this paper, and further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author 20080017@nxmu.edu.cn.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ling Yuan, MD, PhD, Professor, Ningxia Medical University, No. 1160 Shengli Street, Yinchuan 750004, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. nxykdx@qq.com
Received: March 28, 2023
Peer-review started: March 28, 2023
First decision: April 27, 2023
Revised: May 10, 2023
Accepted: June 2, 2023
Article in press: June 2, 2023
Published online: July 21, 2023
Processing time: 106 Days and 22.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid (18β-GRA) is an important bioactive component of glycyrrhiza liquorice. Our results showed that 18β-GRA upregulated the expression of miR-328-3p in gastric cancer (GC) cells. Overexpression of miR-328-3p inhibited GC cell proliferation and colony formation, arrested the cell cycle, promoted apoptosis, inhibited subcutaneous tumor formation, and inhibited signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) expression. Dual-luciferase reporter assay showed that miR-328-3p targeted the regulation of STAT3. Confocal microscopy and western blotting indicated that 18β-GRA promotes autophagy flow by promoting autophagosome synthesis. Thus, 18β-GRA appears to promote cell autophagy and inhibit GC cell proliferation by regulating miR-328-3p/STAT3.