{"doi":"10.21873/anticanres.14688","title":"Apoptosis Induced by (+)-Betulin Through NF-κB Inhibition in MDA-MB-231 Breast Cancer Cells","abstract":"BACKGROUND/AIM: This study aimed to uncover the effects of (+)-betulin on the NF-κB-apoptotic pathway in MDA-MB-231 cells, and determine its toxicity and protein expression in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cell cytotoxicity and toxicity were determined using the SRB assay and a zebrafish model, respectively. Western blot, mitochondrial transmembrane potential (MTP), and computational modeling analysis were performed. RESULTS: (+)-betulin inhibited the growth of MDA-MB-231 cells, but did not induce toxicity in zebrafish. (+)-Betulin inhibited the activity of NF-κB p65 in silico and in vitro. In cells, (+)-betulin down-regulated NF-κB p50 and 65, IKKα and β, ICAM-1 and bcl-2 expressions. Cell co-treatment with (+)-betulin and TNFα increased the (+)-betulin cytotoxic potential. Moreover, (+)-betulin induced the loss of MTP. Furthermore, (+)-betulin, in zebrafish, down-regulated the expression of NF-κB p65, IKKα, ΙΚΚβ and procaspase-3. CONCLUSION: The results contribute to the understanding of the mode of action on apoptosis induction by inhibiting NF-κB pathway in MDA-MB-231 cells.","journal":"Anticancer Research","year":2020,"id":68063,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":23,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9373,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":362628,"name":"NICOLE A. EGGERS","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360861,"name":"Yulin Ren","orcid":"0000-0003-3667-1466","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360862,"name":"José Rivera‐Chávez","orcid":"0000-0002-9225-6200","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360863,"name":"A. Douglas Kinghorn","orcid":"0000-0002-6647-8707","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360864,"name":"Esperanza J. Carcache de Blanco","orcid":"0000-0002-9519-3292","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360860,"name":"Gerardo D. Anaya‐Eugenio","orcid":"0000-0002-5872-201X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":35,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:40:52.680475Z","pmid":"33288558","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}