Zerumbone induces gastric cancer cells apoptosis: Involving cyclophilin A

• Zerumbone suppressed the viability and induced apoptosis of gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells.
• Zerumbone regulated Cyp A expression inducing cell apoptosis of gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells.
• Zerumbone-induced cell apoptosis was mediated through the mitochondrial pathway in gastric cancer SGC-7901 cell.

Gastric cancer is one of the leading causes for cancer death. There is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic approaches targeting metastatic gastric cancer. It has been reported that zerumbone has the anti-cancer effects in various malignant cells. However, the effect and the mechanism of zerumbone on melanoma cells is still largely unknown. In the study, we determined the actions of zerumbone on the human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901.We also observed the mechanism by which zerumbone induced gastric cancer cell apoptosis. Our data indicated that zerumbone significantly inhibited the growth of human gastric cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner and apoptosis was the main cause of decreased cell viability in zerumbone −treated cells. The treatment with zerumbone downregulated Cyp A and Bcl-2 levels, upregulated Bax levels, and caused Cytochrome c (Cyt-C) to release, activating Caspase-3. In summary, our study suggests that zerumbone mightinduced human gastric cancer cells apoptosis through down-regulating Cyp A and mitochondria-mediated pathways.