Babaodan overcomes cisplatin resistance in cholangiocarcinoma via inhibiting YAP1

Abstract

Context

Cholangiocarcinoma with highly heterogeneous, aggressive, and multidrug resistance has a poor prognosis. Although babaodan (BBD) combined with cisplatin improved non-small cell lung cancer efficacy, its impact on overcoming resistance in cholangiocarcinoma remains unexplored.

Objective

This study explored the role and mechanism of BBD on cisplatin resistance in cholangiocarcinoma cells (CCAs).

Materials and methods

Cisplatin-resistant CCAs were exposed to varying concentrations of cisplatin (25–400 μg/mL) or BBD (0.25–1.00 mg/mL) for 48 h. IC₅₀ values, inhibition ratios, apoptosis levels, DNA damage, glutathione (GSH) levels, oxidized forms of GSH, total GSH content, and glutaminase relative activity were evaluated using the cell counting kit 8, flow cytometry, comet assay, and relevant assay kits.

Results

BBD-reduced the cisplatin IC₅₀ in CCAs from 118.8 to 61.83 μg/mL, leading to increased inhibition rate, apoptosis, and DNA damage, and decreased expression of B-cell lymphoma-2, p-Yes-associated protein 1/Yes-associated protein 1, solute carrier family 1 member 5, activating transcription factor 4, and ERCC excision repair 1 in a dose-dependent manner with maximum reductions of 78.97%, 51.98%, 54.03%, 56.59%, and 63.22%, respectively; bcl2-associated X and gamma histone levels were increased by 0.43–115.77% and 22.15–53.39%. The impact of YAP1 knockdown on cisplatin-resistant CCAs resembled BBD. GSH, oxidized GSH species, total GSH content, and glutaminase activity in cisplatin-resistant CCAs with BBD treatment also decreased, while YAP1 overexpression countered BBD’s effects.

Discussion and conclusion

This study provides a scientific basis for BBD clinical application and provides a new direction for BBD biological mechanism research.

Keywords:

• Apoptosis
• DNA damage
• glutathione
• yes-associated protein 1

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Author contribution statement

Jiong Li: Data curation, Methodology, Validation, Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing; Xiangjun Ma: Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing-original draft; Faying Xu: Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing-original draft; Yuanliang Yan: Writing-original draft, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Supervision; Weiqing Chen: Writing-original draft, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Writing-review & editing.

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within its supplementary materials.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hangzhou Agricultural and Social Development Research Guidance Project [grant number 20220919Y128].