The Effect of Tanshinone IIA on Suppressing the Development of APL Through Inhibiting PI3K/AKT Signaling Pathway and Inducing Apoptosis or Triggering Differentiation of NB4 Cells

Abstract

Acute promyelocytic leukemia, a hematologic malignancy that predominantly affects young adults, has a relatively high mortality rate. Although the application of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) therapy over the last decades has significantly improved the long-term survival rate of APL patients, this method of treatment is often accompanied by severe complications such as RAS. This study investigates the effect of using milder traditional Chinese herbal medicine Salvia Miltiorrhiza Bunge, containing tanshinone IIA as an active compound, to treat APL with minor adverse reactions. This experiment will use a known human acute promyelocytic leukemia cell line (NB-4). After treatment with tanshinone, measure phospho-AKT and AKT by western blot, indicating activity of apoptosis. The positive control is taxol, and the negative control is PBS/DMSO. Differentiation of NB4 will be measured by FACS for CD11b and CD11c. The positive control is ATRA, and negative control is no treatment of tanshinone IIA.