@Article{096504018X15270916676926,
AUTHOR = {Jia Liu, Ying Zhang, Shulan Sun, Guirong Zhang, Ke Jiang,§ Peixin Sun, Ye Zhang, Bing Yao, Rui Sui, Yi Chen, Xu Guo, Tao Tang, Ji Shi, Haiyang Liang, Haozhe Piao},
TITLE = {Bufalin Induces Apoptosis and Improves the Sensitivity of Human Glioma  Stem-Like Cells to Temozolamide},
JOURNAL = {Oncology Research},
VOLUME = {27},
YEAR = {2019},
NUMBER = {4},
PAGES = {475--486},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/or/v27n4/48561},
ISSN = {1555-3906},
ABSTRACT = {Glioma is the most common malignant tumor of the central nervous system, and it is characterized by high 
relapse and fatality rates and poor prognosis. Bufalin is one of the main ingredients of Chan-su, a traditional 
Chinese medicine (TCM) extracted from toad venom. Previous studies revealed that bufalin exerted inhibitory 
effects on a variety of tumor cells. To demonstrate the inhibitory effect of bufalin on glioma cells and glioma 
stem-like cells (GSCs) and discuss the underlying mechanism, the proliferation of glioma cells was detected by 
MTT and colony formation assays following treatment with bufalin. In addition, we investigated whether bufalin inhibits or kills GSCs using flow cytometry, Western blotting, and reverse transcription polymerase chain 
reaction analysis (RT-PCR). Finally, we investigated whether bufalin could improve the therapeutic effect of 
temozolomide (TMZ) and discussed the underlying mechanism. Taken together, our data demonstrated that 
bufalin inhibits glioma cell growth and proliferation, inhibits GSC proliferation, and kills GSCs. Bufalin was 
found to induce the apoptosis of GSCs by upregulating the expression of the apoptotic proteins cleaved caspase 3 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and by downregulating the expression of human telomerase 
reverse transcriptase, which is a marker of telomerase activity. Bufalin also improved the inhibitory effect of 
TMZ on GSCs by activating the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. These results suggest that bufalin damages 
GSCs, induces apoptosis, and enhances the sensitivity of GSCs to TMZ.},
DOI = {10.3727/096504018X15270916676926}
}