Antitumor activity of Zerumbone in rhabdomyosarcoma

Introduction: Natural products are generally regarded as safe and have been shown to mediate anticancer activities against a variety of cell types. Zerumbone is a natural cyclic sesquiterpene derived from the rhizome of Zingiber zerumbet, which has attracted extensive attention in the recent decade for anticancer activities. The present study investigates the in vitro effect of zerumbone on rhabdomyosarcoma cells.

Methods: Two rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines (RD and RH30) were used as the model system. The growth inhibition of zerumbone was measured by MTT-assay, apoptosis via flow cytometry, gene expression by real-time PCR, the migration by transwell assay and intracellular signaling by Western blot.

Results: Zerumbone shows anticancer effects on RD and RH30 in a dose-dependent manner via cell viability inhibition and induction of apoptosis. Exposure of zerumbone on RD and RH30 cells also resulted in a decrease of migration and downregulation of the hedgehog pathway.

Conclusions: Taken together, our study provided the first evidence that zerumbone imparted strong inhibitory and apoptotic effects on pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines and merit further investigation as an promising candidate for the anticancer therapy.

Erratum note:

This is a corrected version.

The publisher regrets an error in the author name “Stagno MJ” in the above article published online May 2, 2016. The author's last name was wrong and was incorrectly published as “Stango MJ”. The correct author listing appears above.