Shufeng Jiedu Capsule (SFJDC), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been used widely as antiviral, antibacterial, antitumor, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Previous studies indicated that some active ingredients of Shufeng Jiedu Capsule, such as resveratrol and quercetin, could suppress hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells through various signaling pathways. However, anti-HCC activity of SFJDC as a complementary medicine remains unexplored. Here, we use a combination of Shufeng Jiedu Capsule and doxorubicin to treat HCC cells and investigated the effects and mechanisms of SFJDC and its ingredientsin vitro.

In this study, two HCC cell lines, HepG2 and HepG2.2.15, were employed and all cells were separated into seven groups: doxorubicin group, SFJDC group, combination of doxorubicin and SFJDC group, resveratrol group, quercetin group, resveratrol and quercetin group, and control group. Through this research, the cellular functional experiments, such as MTT assay, Hoechst 33,258 staining, would healing assay, and transwell assay, were took to observe the effects of those agents on proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of cells. Then, apoptosis and invasion related genes and proteins were detected by real-time PCR and western blot to illuminate the signaling pathways.

The combination group induced more significant apoptosis and inhibition of migration and invasion by affecting proteins and mRNA of apoptosis, migration, and invasion related elements, such as Bcl-2, Bax, mTOR, and NF-κB. Furthermore, the research suggested SFJDC, as a mixture of a number of ingredients, had stronger activities than particular component or simple mixture of a few components.

SFJDC and its active ingredients could play a role as complementary medicine to increase antitumor effect of doxorubicin by targeting mitochondrial, Akt/mTOR, and NF-κB signaling pathways.