Abstract
Background: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is one of the most common causes of cancer death worldwide, and responds badly to the existing treatment. Thus, identifying the novel therapeutic targets of DLBCL are urgent. Methods and results: In this study, we found that the T-lymphokine-activated killer cell-originated protein kinase (TOPK) was highly expressed in DLBCL cells and tissues. The TOPK expression were analyzed by bioinformatics analysis, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blot analysis. TOPK knockdown inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis of DLBCL cells with MTS and flow cytometry. Further experiments demonstrated that acetylshikonin, the targeted compound of TOPK, could attenuate the cell growth and aggravate the cell apoptosis through TOPK/extra cellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1/2 signaling using MTS, flow cytometry and western blot analysis. In addition, we demonstrated that TOPK overexpression significantly reduced the acetylshikonin effect on cell proliferation and apoptosis in U2932 and OCI-LY8 cells using MTS, flow cytometry and western blot analysis. Conclusions: Taken together, the present study suggests that the targeted inhibition of TOPK by acetylshikonin may be a promising approach to the treatment of DLBCL.