Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jun 15, 2025; 17(6): 105570
Published online Jun 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i6.105570
Oxocrebanine inhibits the proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells by promoting apoptosis and autophagy
Zheng-Wen Wang, Cai-Yan Pan, Cang-Long Wei, Hui Liao, Xiao-Po Zhang, Cai-Yun Zhang, Lei Yu
Zheng-Wen Wang, Cai-Yan Pan, Cang-Long Wei, Hui Liao, Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery/Hainan Clinical Medical Research Center for Liver Disease and Liver Critical Illness, Hainan Cancer Hospital/Hainan Medical University Affiliated Cancer Hospital, Haikou 570312, Hainan Province, China
Xiao-Po Zhang, Cai-Yun Zhang, Department of Analysis, Hainan Pharmaceutical Research and Development Science and Technology Park, Haikou 570312, Hainan Province, China
Lei Yu, College of Pharmacy/Drug Engineering Technology Research Center, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin 150076, Heilongjiang Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Cai-Yun Zhang and Lei Yu.
Author contributions: Zhang CY and Yu L contributed equally to this study as co-corresponding authors; Yu L and Wang ZW developed the study design and performed manuscript writing; Pan CY, Wei CL, and Liao H performed methodology and data curation; Zhang XP and Zhang CY performed manuscript review and editing; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82060778; the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 820RC776; the Hainan Province Health Science and Technology Innovation Joint Project, No. WSJK2024MS162; and the Heilongjiang Province Scientific Research Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. ZHY2024-098.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Hainan Medical University Affiliated Cancer Hospital.
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 Hainan Medical University (IACUC protocol number: No. HYLL-2024-146).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest associated with this work.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: No other data available.
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: Cai-Yun Zhang, Senior Researcher, Department of Analysis, Hainan Pharmaceutical Research and Development Science and Technology Park, Intersection of Mei'an 3rd Street and Anling 3rd Road, Xiuying District, Haikou 570312, Hainan Province, China. zhangcaiyunhaikou@163.com
Received: February 18, 2025
Revised: March 28, 2025
Accepted: May 8, 2025
Published online: June 15, 2025
Processing time: 115 Days and 5.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The present study revealed that oxocrebanine can inhibit the proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells by promoting apoptosis and inducing autophagy both in vitro and in vivo. Oxocrebanine can induce apoptosis in Hep3b2.1-7 cells by upregulating cleaved caspase-3, Bax, and Bak protein expression levels and downregulating PARP1, Bcl-2, and Mcl-1 protein expression levels. The inhibition of Hep3b2.1-7 cell proliferation by oxocrebanine may be related to the induction of protective autophagy. The results of the TUNEL assay and immunohistochemistry also revealed that oxocrebanine induced apoptosis in vivo and increased the expression level of LC3, an autophagy marker.