San Huang Decoction downregulates Aurora kinase A to inhibit breast cancer cell growth and enhance chemosenstivity to anti-tumor drugs

Our study aimed to explore whether San Huang Decoction (SHD) inhibited the development of breast cancer by regulating Aurora A. Human breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 were cultured and SHD extract was prepared. Cell growth assay and apoptosis analysis were respectively performed to detect the effects of SHD on breast cancer cells. In addition, the effects of SHD on the expression of Aurora A and p53 were determined by RT-PCR and western blot. Besides, we used Aurora A siRNA to knock down Aurora A. We then co-administrated SHD and tamoxifen or epirubicin to detect the effect of SHD on chemosensitivity to tamoxifen or epirubicin. SHD treatment significantly inhibited cell growth in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, SHD treatment resulted in a marked decrease in Aurora A expression and obvious increase in p53 expression. In addition, knockdown of Aurora A induced cell growth inhibition, which was similar to the effect of SHD treatment. Besides, SHD exerted an additive effect on cell growth inhibition and apoptosis induction when breast cancer cells were co-administration of SHD with tamoxifen or epirubicin. Our study indicates that SHD treatment may inhibit cell growth and enhance chemosenstivity to other anti-tumor drugs in breast cancer via down-regulation of Aurora A.