Pachymic acid (3-O-Acetyltumulosic acid) is a natural product, and inhibits Akt and ERK signaling pathways.

Porinic acid (PA) exerted antitumor effects on NCI-H23 and NCI-H460 lung cancer cells in vitro, while inducing cellular G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis. Our data showed that PA induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, leading to activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress apoptotic pathways in lung cancer cells. Furthermore, blocking ROS production reversed PA-induced JNK and ER stress activation. Finally, PA inhibited the growth of NCI-H23 xenograft tumors without causing any toxicity to the host, and suppressed cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in tumor xenograft tissues [1]. At the same time, PA induced cell cycle arrest at G0 phase.PA also significantly inhibited cancer cell migration and invasion in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, PA inhibited the adhesion ability of cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner, which may contribute to the inhibition of cell invasion. Finally, it was shown that PA inhibited AKT and ERK signaling pathways. And tumor proteins such as PCNA, ICAM-1 and RhoA, which are involved in tumorigenesis, were also down-regulated by PA [1].

The anti-proliferative ability of PA on lung cancer cells was assessed by MTT, colony formation and EdU proliferation assays; cell cycle changes were detected by flow cytometry; apoptosis was detected by annexin V/PI double staining and DNA laddering; and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins was analyzed by Western blotting [1].