Effect of Shengmai Yin on the DNA methylation status of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell and its radioresistant strains

Abstract

Shengmai Yin (SMY) is a Chinese herbal decoction that effectively alleviates the side effects of radiotherapy in various cancers and helps achieve radiotherapy's clinical efficacy. In this study, we explored the interaction mechanism among SMY, DNA methylation, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We identified differences in DNA methylation levels in NPC CNE-2 cells and its radioresistant cells (CNE-2R) using the methylated DNA immunoprecipitation array and found that CNE-2R cells showed genome-wide changes in methylation status towards a state of hypomethylation. SMY may restore its original DNA methylation status, and thus, enhance radiosensitivity. Furthermore, we confirmed that the differential gene Tenascin-C (TNC) was overexpressed in CNE-2R cells and that SMY downregulated TNC expression. This downregulation of TNC inhibited NPC cell radiation resistance, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, we found that TNC was hypomethylated in CNE-2R cells and partially restored to a hypermethylated state after SMY intervention. DNA methyltransferases 3a may be the key protein in DNA methylation of TNC.

Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Class of Potentially Reliable Epigenetic Drugs

“…However, the high expression of TNC in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell line CNE-2 caused by abnormal demethylation induced radioresistance. A previous study ( Liu et al, 2021 ) indicated that Shengmai Yin radiosensitized NPC radioresistance cell line by partial hypermethylation of TNC, which suggests Shengmai Yin can be used as a potential radiosensitizer or epigenetic drug for NPC. The goal of epigenetic therapy is “epigenetic reprograming” by a drug that reverses abnormal epigenetic activity in cancer cells and the critical benefit of epigenetic drugs is their innocuity.…”

Targeting the chromatin structural changes of antitumor immunity

“…The epigenetic regulation can regulate the expression of TAAs in different tumor cells. In clinical applications, DNA methyltransferase inhibitor (DNMTi) treatment can improve tumor immunogenicity and immune recognition by promoting the re-expression of TAAs [ 52 ]. Drugs that act on epigenetic modification enzymes have been widely used in the clinical treatment for patients with tumor ( Table 1 ) [ 53 , 54 ].…”

Sheng-Mai-Yin inhibits doxorubicin-induced ferroptosis and cardiotoxicity through regulation of Hmox1

“…Clinically, SMY is often used to supplement Qi and nourish Yin in TCM theories. Since the lack of Qi and Yin is a common phenomenon in cancer patients who receive radio or chemical therapy, the treatment of SMY in these patients has achieved well effects and has become a research hotspot [ 9 , 10 ]. Moreover, SMY was also widely applied for the interventions of various cardiovascular disorders including myocarditis [ 11 ], diabetic cardiomyopathy [ 12 ], myocardial infarction [ 13 ], myocardial ischemia-reperfusion [ 14 ], and heart failure [ 15 ].…”