Anti-metastatic effect of deoxyelephantopin from Elephantopus scaber in A549 lung cancer cells in vitro

In this study, we focused on the in vitro anti-metastatic effects of deoxyelephantopin (DOE), a sesquiterpene lactone from Elephantopus scaber on lung cancer A549 cells. DOE significantly decreased the metastatic potential of A549 cells as demonstrated by transwell invasion and migration assay. DOE inhibited the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), MMP-9, urokinase-type plasminogen activator and urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor at transcript level. Tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP-2) mRNA levels was up-regulated in A549 tumour cells without any change in TIMP-1 expression after DOE treatment. DOE inhibited the protein levels of p-ERK1/2 and p-Akt in A549 cells but it activated p-JNK, p-p38 protein expression. NF-κB and IκBα expressions were down-regulated in DOE-treated cells. All these results demonstrated that DOE has shown anti-metastatic activity against A549 tumour cells.