Specificity protein 1 is a novel target of 2,4-bis (p-hydroxyphenyl)-2- butenal for the suppression of human oral squamous cell carcinoma cell growth

Background: the maillard reaction is a chemical reaction occurring between a reducing sugar and an amino acid,generally requiring thermal processing. maillard reaction products (mrps) have antioxidant,antimutagenic,and antibacterial effects though 2,4-bis (p-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butenal (hpb242),a fructose-tyrosine mrp,appears to inhibit proliferation of cancer cells,its mechanism of action has not been studied in detail. the purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-proliferative effects of 2,4-bis (p-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butenal (hpb242) on two oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc) cell lines,hn22 and hsc4,through regulation of specificity protein 1 (sp1). results: hpb242 treatment dramatically reduced the cell growth rate and apoptotic cell morphologies. sp1 was significantly inhibited by hpb242 in a dose-dependent manner. furthermore,cell cycle regulating proteins and anti-apoptotic proteins,which are known as sp1 target genes,were altered at the molecular levels. the key important regulators in the cell cycle such as p27 were increased,whereas cell proliferation- and survival-related proteins such as cyclin d1,myeloid leukemia sequence 1 (mcl-1) and survivin were significantly decreased by hpb242 or suppressed sp1 levels,however pro-apoptotic proteins caspase3 and parp were cleaved in hn22 and hsc4. conclusions: hpb242 may be useful as a chemotherapeutic agent for oscc for the purpose of treatment and prevention of oral cancer and for the improvement of clinical outcomes. © 2014 chae et al.; licensee biomed central ltd.