Betulinic acid may modulate autophagy in renal cell carcinoma cells.

Betulinic acid is pentacyclic triterpenoid known to exert antitumor effects by modulating many cellular pathways in various human malignancies. However, its modulatory role in autophagy in renal cell carcinoma remains unclear. Here, we observed how betulinic acid affects autophagy in renal cell carcinoma cells. After treating cells with betulinic acid, we determined the gene expression and protein levels of Beclin-1 and ATG-5 by qPCR and ELISA assay to observe its effects on autophagy. The qPCR results demonstrated that Beclin-1 expression level was low in untreated metastatic renal adenocarcinoma ACHN cells and increased in response to 25 µM and 50 µM betulinic acid treatment. ATG-5 expression level was decreased in primary clear cell renal cell carcinoma CAKI-2 cells treated with 50 µM betulinic acid. In the ELISA assay results, we observed that betulinic acid caused a decrease in Beclin-1 protein level at 25 µM concentration and in ATG-5 protein level at 50 µM concentration in CAKI-2 cells. In our preliminarily study, it was concluded that the role of autophagy may differ in renal cell carcinoma cells depending on their origin and that the effects of betulinic acid on autophagy in these cells may vary accordingly (Fig. 4, Ref. 40). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: betulinic acid, autophagy, kidney, cancer, cell.