Transcriptomic analysis of icariin in breast cancer cells
Icariin could significantly impair viability and induce apoptosis in 4T1 and MDA-MB-231 cells but has little effect on human mammary epithelium cell MCF-10A. To gain insight into the molecular mechanism of selective function of icariin, we utilized transcriptomics data to study effects of icariin on MDA-MB-231 and MCF-10A cells. As shown in Fig. 5A, the expression profiles of treated MDA-MB-231 cells is different with that of untreated MDA-MB-231 cells. In MCF-10A cells, there are no significant difference between treated and untreated groups. Moreover, after treatment with icariin, changes of transcriptome in MDA-MB-231 cells are distinctly different with MCF-10A cells. Subsequently, for the purpose of determining molecular pathways associated with icariin, we performed KEGG analysis for signal pathway (Fig. 5B and C). Results of KEGG analysis revealed significant enrichment for tumor cells apoptosis, migration and invasion related signaling pathways, especially NF-κB and TNF. Furthermore, well-characterized genes which participate in NF-κB and TNF were significantly downregulated after treatment with icariin (Fig. 5D). However, after treated with icariin, NF-κB related genes in MCF-10A cells were almost unchanged. Transcriptomic analysis suggested that icariin impairs activity of NF-κB signaling pathway by downregulating NF-κB related genes so that selectively induces apoptosis and suppresses migration and invasion in MDA-MB-231 cells.