Abstract: This study explored the effects of polyphyllin I on human oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells. After culturing the human OSCC cell lines SCC-9 and CAL-27 in vitro, the cells were treated with 0, 1, 2, and 5 μmol/L of polyphyllin I. The cell proliferation activity was detected by the cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) method and the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) was calculated. The changes in cell proliferation were observed by 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) staining. The apoptosis rate was quantitatively analyzed by flow cytometry (Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining). The expression levels of EGFR, p-STAT3, p-AKT, Puma, and Noxa were detected by Western blot, and the mRNA expression levels of the apoptosis-related genes Puma and Noxa were detected by RT-qPCR. The results showed that polyphyllin I could significantly inhibit the proliferation of OSCC cells, down-regulate the protein expression levels of EGFR, p-STAT3, and p-AKT, and effectively promote the apoptosis of OSCC cells, up-regulate the expression of pro-apoptotic factors Puma and Noxa, and the mRNA expression levels of Puma and Noxa would significantly increase with the increase of drug concentration (P<0.05). This study confirmed that polyphyllin I could significantly inhibit the proliferation of OSCC cells and induce apoptosis. This effect was significantly and positively correlated with the up-regulation of mRNA and protein expression of Puma and Noxa in a concentration-dependent manner, suggesting that the two might be involved in the process of OSCC cell apoptosis induced by polyphyllin I.
Keywords: polyphyllin I; oral squamous cell carcinoma; apoptosis; Puma; Noxa
（Acta Laser Biology Sinica, 2026, 35(3): 275-281）