ArticleMolecules (Basel, Switzerland)2014
Antiproliferative effect of the isoquinoline alkaloid papaverine in hepatocarcinoma HepG-2 cells--inhibition of telomerase and induction of senescence.
Article in Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Telomerase in cancer- ongoing quest and future discoveries.Molecular biology reports · 2025Review
- Targeting telomere dynamics with plant-derived compounds: Molecular strategies against aging.Current research in pharmacology and drug discovery · 2025Review
- Papaverine: A Miraculous Alkaloid from Opium and Its Multimedicinal Application.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Review
- Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Propolis and Its Polyphenolic Compounds against Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- In Vitro Effects of Papaverine on Cell Migration and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Cancer Cell Lines.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Review
- In Vitro Effects of Papaverine on Cell Proliferation, Reactive Oxygen Species, and Cell Cycle Progression in Cancer Cells.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Novel Papaverine Metal Complexes with Potential Anticancer Activities.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Cellular senescence and cancer: Focusing on traditional Chinese medicine and natural products.Cell proliferation · 2020Review
- Impact of Opioid Use in Hematological Malignancies: Clinical, Immunological and Concomitant Aspects.Journal of hematology · 2020Review
- Mitochondria in cancer.Cell stress · 2020Review
- Anticancer effects of a non-narcotic opium alkaloid medicine, papaverine, in human glioblastoma cells.PloS one · 2019Article
- Telomerase Inhibitors from Natural Products and Their Anticancer Potential.International journal of molecular sciences · 2017Review
- Modes of Action of Herbal Medicines and Plant Secondary Metabolites.Medicines (Basel, Switzerland) · 2015Review
- Studies on Cytotoxic Activity against HepG-2 Cells of Naphthoquinones from Green Walnut Husks of Juglans mandshurica Maxim.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2015Article
- Targeting Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase by a Simple siRNA Expression Cassette in HepG2 Cells.Hepatitis monthly · 2015Article
- Dose-dependent cytotoxic effects of boldine in HepG-2 cells-telomerase inhibition and apoptosis induction.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2015Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cancer cells are often immortal through up-regulation of the hTERT gene, which encodes the catalytic subunit of a special reverse transcriptase to overcome end-replication problem of chromosomes. This study demonstrates that papaverine, an isoquinoline alkaloid from the Papaveraceae, can overcome telomerase dependent immortality of HepG-2 cells that was used as a model of hepatocarcinoma. Although this alkaloid does not directly interact with telomeric sequences, papaverine inhibits telomerase through down-regulation of hTERT, which was analysed using thermal FRET and qRT-PCR, respectively. The IC50 values for the reduction of both telomerase activity and hTERT expression was 60 µM, while IC50 for cytotoxicity was 120 µM. Repeated treatments of the cells with very low non-toxic concentrations of papaverine resulted in growth arrest and strong reduction of population doublings after 40 days. This treatment induced senescent morphology in HepG-2 cells, which was evaluated by beta-galactosidase staining. Altogether, papaverine can be regarded as a promising model compound for drug design targeting cancer development.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.