γ-tocotrienol regulates gastric cancer by targeting notch signaling pathway

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is a common cause of death from cancer and an important global health care issue. Consequently, there is an urgent need to find new drugs and therapeutic targets for the treatment of gastric cancer. Recent studies have shown that tocotrienols (T3) have significant anticancer ability in cancer cell lines. Our previous study found that γ-tocotrienol (γ-T3) induced apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. We further explored the possible mechanisms of γ-T3 therapy for gastric cancer. METHODS: In this study, we treated gastric cancer cells with γ-T3, collect and deposit the cells. γ-T3-treated gastric cancer cells group and untreated group were subjected to RNA-seq assay, and analysis of sequencing results. RESULTS: Consistent with our previous findings, the results suggest that γ-T3 can inhibit mitochondrial complexes and oxidative phosphorylation. Analysis reveals that γ-T3 has altered mRNA and ncRNA in gastric cancer cells. Significantly altered signaling pathways after γ-T3 treatment were enriched for human papillomavirus infection (HPV) pathway and notch signaling pathway. The same significantly down-regulated genes notch1 and notch2 were present in both pathways in γ-T3-treated gastric cancer cells compared to controls. CONCLUSIONS: It is indicated that γ-T3 may cure gastric cancer by inhibiting the notch signaling pathway. To provide a new and powerful basis for the clinical treatment of gastric cancer.