2′-Fucosyllactose Suppresses Angiogenesis and Alleviates Toxic Effects of 5-Fu in a HCT116 Colon Tumor-Bearing Model

The present study was aimed at examining the anti-tumor effects and molecular mechanisms of 2′-fucosyllactose (2′-FL). At the beginning, the viabilities of four types of colon cancer cells were analyzed after exposure to increasing concentrations of 2′-FL, and HCT116 cells were selected as the sensitive ones, which were applied in the further experiments; then, interestingly, 2′-FL (102.35 µM) was found to induce apoptosis of HCT116 cells, which coincides with significant changes in VEGFA/VEGFR2/p-PI3K/p-Akt/cleaved Caspase3 proteins. Next, in a tumor-bearing nude mouse model, HCT116 was chosen as the sensitive cell line, and 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) was chosen as the positive medicine. It was noteworthy that both 2′-FL group (2.41 ± 0.57 g) and 2′FL/5-Fu group (1.22 ± 0.35 g) had a significantly lower tumor weight compared with the control (3.87 ± 0.79 g), suggesting 2′-FL could inhibit colon cancer. Since 2′-FL reduced the number of new blood vessels and the malignancy of tumors, we confirmed that 2′-FL effectively inhibited HCT116 tumors, and its mechanism was achieved by regulating the VEGFA/VEGFR2/PI3K/Akt/Caspase3 pathway. Moreover, though HE staining and organ index measurement, 2′-FL was validated to alleviate toxic effects on liver and kidney tissue when combining with 5-Fu. In conclusion, 2′-FL had certain anti-tumor and detoxification effects.