Compound kushen injection suppresses human acute myeloid leukaemia by regulating the Prdxs/ROS/Trx1 signalling pathway

BACKGROUND: The increase in the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients has been previously described; thus, it is important to regulate ROS levels in AML. METHODS: Flow cytometry were used to assess the in vitro effect of compound kushen injection (CKI). Quantitative proteomics were used to analyse the mechanism. The AML patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model were used to evaluate the in vivo effect of CKI. RESULTS: We found that intracellular ROS levels in AML cells were decreased, the antioxidant capacity were increased when treated with CKI. CKI inhibited the proliferation of AML cells and enhanced the cytotoxicity of AML cells, which has few toxic effects on haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and T cells. At the single-cell level, individual AML cells died gradually by CKI treatment on optofluidic chips. CKI promoted apoptosis and arrested cell cycle at G1/G0 phase in U937 cells. Furthermore, higher peroxiredoxin-3 (Prdx3) expression levels were identified in CKI-treated U937 cells through quantitative proteomics detection. Mechanically, the expression of Prdx3 and peroxiredoxin-2 (Prdx2) was up-regulated in CKI-treated AML cells, while thioredoxin 1 (Trx1) was reduced. Laser confocal microscopy showed that the proteins Prdx2 could be Interacted with Trx1 by CKI treatment. In vivo, the survival was longer and the disease was partially alleviated by decreased CD45+ immunophenotyping in peripheral blood in the CKI-treated group in the AML PDX model. CONCLUSIONS: Antioxidant CKI possess better clinical application against AML through the Prdxs/ROS/Trx1 signalling pathway. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-018-0948-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.