The Inhibitory Effect of Toxic Chinese Drugs on the Growth of Human Colon Cancer Cell Line HCT116 and SW480

OBJECTIVE To screen out the medicines that can be specifically against human colon cancer cells from the already known toxic antineoplastic Chinese drugs.METHODS Oldenlandia diffusa， Tripterygium wilfordii， Paris polyphylla， Solanum nigrum， Gamboges， Rhizoma arisaematis， Dioscorea bulbifera L， Cinobufacini， Sodium cantharidinate and Sodium arsenic were applied to treat the human colon cancer cell line HCT116(MLH1-deficient) and SW480(proficient mismatch repair)， MTT were used to analyze the growth inhibition of two cell lines.RESULTS Sodium cantharidinate， Cinobufacini， Sodium arsenic and Gamboges can inhibit cell growth of HCT116 and SW480， The IC50 values of HCT116 cell line were significantly lower than SW480 cell line when they were both treated with Sodium cantharidinate Cinobufacini and Gamboges(P<0.05). Meanwhile， there were no significant difference between the IC50 values of HCT116 cell line and SW480 cell line when they were treated with Sodium arsenic(P>0.05). However， Oldenlandia diffusa， Tripterygium wilfordii， Paris polyphylla， Solanum nigrum， Rhizoma arisaematis， Dioscorea bulbifera L did not present growth inhibition effect on HCT116 and SW480 in this study.CONCLUSION Gamboges， Sodium cantharidinate， Sodium arsenic and Cinobufacini can effectively inhibit the growth of human colon cancer cells developing from different genetic pathways. Gamboges， Sodium cantharidinate and Cinobufacini may specifically against MMR-deficient human colon cancer cells.