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Thymoquinone reduces migration and invasion of human glioblastoma cells associated with FAK, MMP-2 and MMP-9 down-regulation

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Summary

Glioblastoma represent the most frequent primary tumors of the central nervous system and remain among the most aggressive human cancers as available therapeutic approaches still fail to contain their invasiveness. Many studies have reported elevated expression of the Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) protein in glioblastoma, associated with an increase in the rates of both migration and invasion. This designates FAK as a promising target to limit invasiveness in glioblastoma. Thymoquinone (TQ), the main phytoactive compound of Nigella sativa has shown remarkable anti-neoplasic activities on a variety of cancer cells. Here, we studied the anti-invasive and anti-migratory effects of TQ on human glioblastoma cells. The results obtained indicated that TQ treatment reduced migration, adhesion and invasion of both U-87 and CCF-STTG1 cells. This was accompanied by a drastic down-regulation of FAK, associated with a reduction of ERK phosphorylation as well as MMP-2 and MMP-9 secretion. This study provides new data on FAK regulation by a natural product (TQ) which could be of a great value for the development of novel therapies in glioblastoma.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by grants from the Ligue Contre le Cancer (Comités de la région Alsace) to P. Rondé. K. Kolli-Bouhafs was supported by a doctoral fellowship from the Ministère de l’Enseignement et de la Recherche.

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  1. Laboratoire de Biophotonique et Pharmacologie, Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS UMR 7213, 74 route du Rhin, B.P. 60024, 67401, Illkirch, France

    Kaouther Kolli-Bouhafs, Abdelaziz Boukhari, Abdurazzag Abusnina, Emilie Velot, Jean-Pierre Gies, Claire Lugnier & Philippe Rondé

  2. Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Strasbourg, 67401, Illkirch, France

    Kaouther Kolli-Bouhafs, Abdelaziz Boukhari, Abdurazzag Abusnina, Emilie Velot, Jean-Pierre Gies, Claire Lugnier & Philippe Rondé

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  1. Kaouther Kolli-Bouhafs
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  2. Abdelaziz Boukhari
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  3. Abdurazzag Abusnina
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Correspondence to Philippe Rondé.

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Kolli-Bouhafs, K., Boukhari, A., Abusnina, A. et al. Thymoquinone reduces migration and invasion of human glioblastoma cells associated with FAK, MMP-2 and MMP-9 down-regulation. Invest New Drugs 30, 2121–2131 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-011-9777-3

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