Tetrastigma hemsleyanum leaves extract against acrylamide-induced toxicity in HepG2 cells and Caenorhabditis elegans

Acrylamide (ACR), as a raw material of polyacrylamide that used in water purification, was verified to possess various toxicity. Tetrastigma hemsleyanum (TH) is a medicinal plant widely used to anti-inflammation and anti-tumor in Chinese folks. However, more researches focused on the biological activities in tubers and the leaves were ignored. Thus, the protective effect of Tetrastigma hemsleyanum leaves extract (THLE) against ACR-induced toxicity in HepG2 cells and Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) was explored in this study. In vitro, we observed that THLE attenuated ACR-induced toxicity in HepG2 cell via regulating Akt/mTOR/FOXO1/MAPK signaling pathway. Further research proved that 5-caffeoylquinic acid (5-CA) plays a major role in THLE’s amelioration effect of ACR toxicity. In vivo, it was found that THLE possesses the same protective effect in ACR-treated wild-type N2 C. elegans and daf-2 (-) (deficit in DAF-2) mutants. However, the anti-ACR toxicity effect of THLE in daf-16 (-) mutants (deficit in DAF-16 that homologous to FOXO family in human) was weakened. Our results indicated that THLE exhibited protective effects against ACR-induced toxicity both in HepG2 cells and C. elegans, while DAF-16/FOXO gene is involved in THLE’ protective effect via regulating the expression levels of downstream antioxidant genes.