Arsenic Trioxide Induces Apoptosis and Incapacitates Proliferation and Invasive Properties of U87MG Glioblastoma Cells through a Possible NF-κB-Mediated Mechanism.

Identification of novel therapeutics in glioblastoma remains crucial due to the devastating and infiltrative capacity of this malignancy. The current study was aimed to appraise effect of arsenic trioxide (ATO) in U87MG cells. The results demonstrated that ATO induced apoptosis and impeded proliferation of U87MG cells in a dosedependent manner and also inhibited classical NF-κB signaling pathway. ATO further upregulated expression of Bax as an important proapoptotic target of NF-κB and also inhibited mRNA expression of survivin, c-Myc and hTERT and suppressed telomerase activity. Moreover, ATO significantly increased adhesion of U87MG cells and also diminished transcription of NF-κB down-stream targets involved in cell migration and invasion, including cathepsin B, uPA, MMP-2, MMP-9 and MMP-14 and suppressed proteolytic activity of cathepsin B, MMP-2 and MMP-9, demonstrating a possible mechanism of ATO effect on a well-known signaling in glioblastoma dissemination. Taken together, here we suggest that ATO inhibits survival and invasion of U87MG cells possibly through NF-κB-mediated inhibition of survivin and telomerase activity and NF-κB-dependent suppression of cathepsin B, MMP-2 and MMP-9.