Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
Bing De Ling®, a Chinese herbal formula, inhibits cancer cells growth via p53
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Bing De Ling® is a Chinese herbal formula that has been used to treat cancer patients for more than a decade. However, the molecular mechanisms behind its anti-tumor efficacy are still elusive. Here, we show that Bing De Ling® inhibits cell proliferation in ovarian cancer epithelial cell lines, OV2008 and C13. It induces G1/S arrest in a p53-dependent manner in that this effect is attenuated in OV2008 cells transfected with dominant-negative p53 plasmid. Moreover, we show that Bing De Ling® up-regulates p53 transcriptional activities as well as its downstream target genes, such as p21Cip1, MDM2, and MDMX. In addition, Bing De Ling® inhibits MDMX-p53 interaction which may result in stabilization and activation of p53. Collectively, our results suggest that the anti-tumor activity of Bing De Ling® may be in part due to activation of p53.