Biochanin A regulates the growth and migration of NSCLC through suppressing the VEGF/VEGFR2 signaling pathway

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common lung cancer with 15.9% of predicted 5-year survival rate which represents extremely poor prognosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of Biochanin A (BIO-A) on NSCLC both in vitro and in vivo and to explore its underlying mechanism. We found that BIO-A could effectively inhibit the proliferation of NSCLC cell line A549 in a dose-dependent manner through down-regulating Ki-67 and VEGF, induce apoptosis by activation of cleaved-Caspase-3 and cleaved-Caspase-9, and suppress cell migration by downregulating of MMP-2 and VEGF. Mechanistically, the results of western blot indicated that BIO-A exerted its anti-growth ability through blocking VEGF/VEGFR2 signaling pathway. Moreover, BIOA significantly inhibited the growth of tumor in NSCLC xenograft model. Taken together, our investigation has suggested that BIO-A exhibits potent antitumor activities against NSCLC both in vitro and in vivo and provided a molecular basis for BIO-A potential applications in the treatment of NSCLC and other VEGF-induced diseases.