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Neocryptolepine derivatives have attracted a lot of attention because of their good cytotoxic activity; however, cytotoxicity studies on colorectal cancer cells are scarce. In this study, the cytotoxicity of 8-methoxy-2,5-dimethyl-5H-indolo[2,3-b] quinoline (MMNC) in colorectal cells was evaluated. The results showed that MMNC inhibits the proliferation of HCT116 and Caco-2 cells, blocks the cell cycle in the G2\/M phase, decreases the cell mitochondrial membrane potential and induces apoptosis. In addition, the results of western blot experiments suggest that MMNC exerts cytotoxicity by inhibiting the expression of PI3K\/AKT\/mTOR signaling pathway-related proteins. Based on these results, MMNC is a promising lead compound for anticancer activity in the treatment of human colorectal cancer.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms242015142","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,13]],"date-time":"2023-10-13T06:07:26Z","timestamp":1697177246000},"page":"15142","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Biological Evaluation of 8-Methoxy-2,5-dimethyl-5H-indolo[2,3-b] Quinoline as a Potential Antitumor Agent via PI3K\/AKT\/mTOR Signaling"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Yunhao","family":"Ma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongmei","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinrong","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhongkun","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yong","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanan","family":"Tian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Applied Science, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mengze","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lixue","family":"Tu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Juan","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuqing","family":"Niu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9284-3667","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Huanxiang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Applied Science, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yingqian","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4402-4568","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peng","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2703","DOI":"10.7150\/ijbs.59404","article-title":"Tagitinin C induces ferroptosis through PERK-Nrf2-HO-1 signaling pathway in colorectal cancer cells","volume":"17","author":"Wei","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int. 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