Effect of shikonin on multidrug resistance in HepG2: The role of SIRT1

Abstract

Context: Overexpression of SIRT1 is considered to enhance the resistance of HepG2 cells to irradiation. Shikonin, a naturally occurring naphthoquinone compound, displays anticancer effects and circumvents cancer drug resistance.

Objectives: This study investigated the MDR reversal effect of shikonin induced by the overexpression of SIRT1.

Materials and methods: The overexpression of SIRT1 in HepG2 cells was established by lentivirus infection. Five days after transduction, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were used to detect the expression of SIRT1 and MDR1/P-gp. Drug resistance was also evaluated by flow cytometry after rhodamine-123 staining. On day 5, the multidrug resistance cells were treated by shikonin (10?7, 10?6, and 10?5 μmol/L) one time. The cell viability was detected by the MTT assay, 

shikonin (SNK, Chengdu Biopurify Phytochemicals Ltd, Chengdu, China)