Dipyridyl pyrrolidine inhibits MDA-MB231 breast cancer cell cycle by inhibiting AKT-mTOR

To investigate the induction of cell cycle arrest of human breast cancer MDA-MB231 cells by Di-indolyl pyrrolidine(DIPRD), a pyrrolidine-derived spirooxindoles compounds. The cytotoxic effect of DIPRD on MDA-MB231 cells was detected by CCK-8 method. The cell cycle arrest of MDA-MB231 cells was detected by DAPI/EdU double-staining. Phosphorylation levels of AKT, mTOR, apoptosis-related proteins p53, MDM2, and DNA repair enzyme PARP levels were detected by Western blot. DIPRD inhibited the viability of MDA-MB231 cells by downregulating the number of EdU-positive cells, increase G₁ phase and reduce cell number in S/G₂ phase, down-regulated the p-AKT(Ser473), p-mTOR, p-p53, cyclin D1, CDK4, and the upregulated the p-AKT(Thr308), p-MDM2 and Cleaved-PARP levels were detected in a dose-dependent manner at 12. 5, 25, and 50 mg/mL. DIPRD may play a role in cell cycle arrest through AKT signaling pathway and induce cell apoptosis.