%0 Journal Article %T NF-百B p65 repression by the sesquiterpene lactone, Helenalin, contributes to the induction of autophagy cell death %A Chuan Bian Lim %A Pan You Fu %A Nung Ky %A Hong Shuang Zhu %A Feng XiaoLing %A Jinming Li %A Kandhadayar Gopalan Srinivasan %A Mohamed Sabry Hamza %A Zhao Yan %J BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine %D 2012 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1472-6882-12-93 %X To deduce the mechanistic action of helenalin, cancer cells were treated with the drug at various concentrations and time intervals. Using western blot, FACS analysis, overexpression and knockdown studies, cellular signaling pathways were interrogated focusing on apoptosis and autophagy markers.We show here that helenalin induces sub-G1 arrest, apoptosis, caspase cleavage and increases the levels of the autophagic markers. Suppression of caspase cleavage by the pan caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-fmk, suppressed induction of LC3-B and Atg12 and reduced autophagic cell death, indicating caspase activity was essential for autophagic cell death induced by helenalin. Additionally, helenalin suppressed NF-百B p65 expression in a dose and time dependent manner. Exogenous overexpression of p65 was accompanied by reduced levels of cell death whereas siRNA mediated suppression led to augmented levels of caspase cleavage, autophagic cell death markers and increased cell death.Taken together, these results show that helenalin mediated autophagic cell death entails inhibition of NF-百B p65, thus providing a promising approach for the treatment of cancers with aberrant activation of the NF-百B pathway. %K Helenalin or Hele(Helenalin) %K Autophagy %K Caspase %K NF-百B %K Atg12 and LC3-B %U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/12/93/abstract