Abstract

Oridonin could induce NB (neuroblastoma) cells growth inhibition by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, and the molecular mechanisms behind the effects deserve to be further explored. Here, oridonin was confirmed to cause the reactivation of p53 (cellular tumor antigen p53) to promote the expression of a series of apoptosis- and cell cycle arrest-related proteins for the biological effects. During the process, oridonin relied on the caspase activation to cleave p53-induced Mdm2 (E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase Mdm2) to generate Mdm2-p60. The generation of Mdm2-p60 stabilized p53, and resulted in p53 accumulation for p53 continuous activation. In our research, it was also found that the reactivation of p53 induced by oridonin was closely related with the generation of ROS (reactive oxygen species). Taken together, these findings explain that oridonin exerts its anticancer activity partially by targeting the Mdm2-p53 axis in NB cells, which lay an experimental base for future research of exploring the effects and molecular mechanisms of oridonin.