By inhibiting snail signaling and miR-23a-3p, osthole suppresses the EMT-mediated metastatic ability in prostate cancer

Here we showed that Osthole, 7-methoxy-8-(3-methyl-2-butenyl) coumarin, a bioactive coumarin derivative extracted from medicinal plants, inhibited migration, invasion, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) in androgen-independent prostate cancer (AIPC) cells in vitro and metastasis of AIPC in vivo. In patients, high Snail levels were correlated with a higher histological Gleason sum and poor survival rates. Osthole inhibited the TGF-β/Akt/MAPK pathways, reduced Snail-DNA-binding activity and induced E-cadherin. We found that osthole decreased miR-23a-3p. Ectopic miR-23a-3p suppressed E-cadherin 3' untranslated region reporter activity and E-cadherin expression, and relieved the motility suppression caused by osthole treatment.