Resveratrol coordinates apoptosis and autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma cells via p53 acetylation: An integrative network pharmacology and experimental validation study.
IF 1.7 4区 生物学Q3 BIOTECHNOLOGY & APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY
Hui Zhang, Huidong Zhang, Wei Li, Hong Zhang, Yang Xu, Wen Liu, Liya Bao, Siyu Zhou, Xiaoyu Zhang, Jiao Li
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a therapeutic challenge due to late-stage diagnosis and suboptimal response to standard therapies. Resveratrol, a plant-derived polyphenol, suppresses proliferation of HCC cells by inducing apoptosis and autophagy. However, the regulatory mechanism that integrates these two processes is poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate how resveratrol coordinately regulates apoptosis and autophagy in HCC cells. Using integrated network pharmacology and QIAGEN Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA), TP53 was predicted as the central hub target gene of resveratrol in HCC, where it coordinated both apoptosis and autophagy. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation confirmed direct and stable binding of resveratrol to p53 protein. Functional validation in vitro revealed that resveratrol significantly (P < 0.01) inhibited the viability of p53-wild-type HepG2 cells, accompanied by mRNA upregulation of pro-apoptotic and autophagy-related genes (BAX, CASP9, CASP3, ATG5), with concordant changes at the protein level (upregulated Bax and ATG5 proteins, increased ratios of Bax/Bcl-2, cleaved-Caspase 9/Caspase 9, cleaved-Caspase 3/Caspase 3, and LC3B-II/I, decreased p62 protein). These effects were strictly p53-dependent, as they were absent in p53-null Hep3B cells and significantly (P < 0.05) attenuated upon pharmacological inhibition of p53 in HepG2 cells. Mechanistically, resveratrol activated p53 not by increasing its protein level but by enhancing its acetylation at Lysine 382. This study established p53 acetylation as a critical switch through which resveratrol coordinately induced apoptosis and autophagy. These findings provide a mechanistic framework for anti-HCC effect of resveratrol and underscore the therapeutic relevance of p53 activation pathways in HCC.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10616-026-00973-1.
期刊介绍:
The scope of the Journal includes:
1. The derivation, genetic modification and characterization of cell lines, genetic and phenotypic regulation, control of cellular metabolism, cell physiology and biochemistry related to cell function, performance and expression of cell products.
2. Cell culture techniques, substrates, environmental requirements and optimization, cloning, hybridization and molecular biology, including genomic and proteomic tools.
3. Cell culture systems, processes, reactors, scale-up, and industrial production. Descriptions of the design or construction of equipment, media or quality control procedures, that are ancillary to cellular research.
4. The application of animal/human cells in research in the field of stem cell research including maintenance of stemness, differentiation, genetics, and senescence, cancer research, research in immunology, as well as applications in tissue engineering and gene therapy.
5. The use of cell cultures as a substrate for bioassays, biomedical applications and in particular as a replacement for animal models.