Dandelion polysaccharides exert anticancer effect on Hepatocellular carcinoma by inhibiting PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and enhancing immune response

Dandelion polysaccharides (DP) have been reported to possess anticancer activity. In this study, we showed that DP significantly inhibited Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo and induced cell apoptosis and arrested cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase. Moreover, RNA sequencing data revealed that DP dampened PI3K-AKT signaling pathway. Western blot results confirmed that DP treatment negatively regulated the levels of p-PI3K, p-AKT, and p-mTOR in HCC cells, suggesting that DP inhibited PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Furthermore, immunophenotyping experiments showed that DP significantly improved the spleen index, spleen germinal center reaction and modulated T cell activation in vivo, which could contribute to the inhibition of tumor growth in animals. In addition, in vivo studies demonstrated that 400 mg/kg DP treatment was well-tolerated by mouse without any adverse systemic toxicological changes. In summary, we propose that DP might be a potential drug candidate for the treatment of HCC.