Synergistic antitumor effect of resveratrol and sorafenib on hepatocellular carcinoma through PKA/AMPK/eEF2K pathway

Abstract

Although sorafenib (Sor) is the only effective drug for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), its therapeutic potential to date is mainly limited to the low tumor response. This study was designed to explore whether resveratrol (Res) could potentiate the anticancerous activity of Sor. We used HepG2 and Huh7 HCC cell lines and BALB/c nude mice for in vitro and in vivo studies, respectively. The cultured cell lines and tumor induction in the mice were treated with different concentrations of Res and Sor alone, and the combination of Res and Sor to observe the antitumor effects. Significant inhibitory effects were observed in the combined treatment of Res and Sor compared to Res and Sor alone treatments both in vitro and in vivo as demonstrated by significantly high number of S phase cells and apoptotic cells. Moreover, these findings were accompanied by the reduction of CDK2, CDC25A, PKA, p-AMPK, and eEF2K protein levels and the increment of cyclin A, cleavage caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9 protein levels. The combinational treatment exhibited more significant anticancerous effect than the Res and Sor alone treatments in mice-bearing HepG2 xenograft. Overall, our results suggest that PKA/AMPK/eEF2K pathway is involved in the synergistic anticancerous activity of Res and Sor combination treatment in HCC cells. Thus, Res and Sor combination therapy may be promising in increasing the tumor response of Sor in the future.