Thesis (M.Sc.)--Chulalongkorn University, 2012

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death among cancer patients worldwide, and most of them have died from metastasis. Migration and invasion are prerequisite processes associated with high metastasis potential in cancers. During the past decade, efforts have been made to develop cancer treatment options based on the anti-metastasis mechanism. Researchers have identified some biological agents that are believed to have an ability against cancer metastasis. Moscatilin is a major constituent isolated from the Thai orchid Dendrobium pulchellum, has been shown to have anticancer effect against numerous cancer cell lines. However, little is known regarding the effect of moscatilin on cancer cell migration and invasion. The present study demonstrates that non-toxic concentrations of moscatilin were able to inhibit human non-small cell lung cancer H23 cell migration and invasion. The inhibitory effect of moscatilin was associated with an attenuation of endogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS), in which hydroxyl radical (OH) was identified as a dominant species in the suppression of filopodia formation. Western blot analysis also revealed that moscatilin possed its ability to down-regulate activated focal adhesion kinase (phosphorylated FAK, Tyr 397) and activated ATP-dependent tyrosine kinase (phosphorylated Akt, Ser 473), whereas their parental counterparts were not detectable changed. In conclusion, these results indicate the novel molecular basis of moscalitin-inhibiting lung cancer cell motility and invasion and demonstrate a promising anti-metastatic potential of such an agent for lung cancer therapy.