TY - JOUR AB - Multiple myeloma (MM) is an aggressive B cell malignancy. Substantial progress has been made in the therapeutic context for patients with MM, however it still represents an incurable disease due to drug resistance and recurrence. Development of more effective or synergistic therapeutic approaches undoubtedly represents an unmet clinical need. Tomentosin is a bioactive natural sesquiterpene lactone extracted by various plants with therapeutic properties, including anti‑neoplastic effects. In the present study, the potential antitumor activity of tomentosin was evaluated on the human RPMI‑8226 cell line, treated with increasing tomentosin concentration for cytotoxicity screening. The data suggested that both cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis could explain the antiproliferative effects of tomentosin and may result in the inhibition of RPMI‑8226 cell viability. To assess differentially expressed genes contributing to tomentosin activity and identify its mechanism of action, a microarray gene expression profile was performed, identifying 126 genes deregulated by tomentosin. To address the systems biology and identify how tomentosin deregulates gene expression in MM from a systems perspective, all deregulated genes were submitted to enrichment and molecular network analysis. The Protein‑Protein Interaction (PPI) network analysis showed that tomentosin in human MM induced the downregulation of genes involved in several pathways known to lead immune‑system processes, such as cytokine‑cytokine receptor interaction, chemokine or NF‑κB signaling pathway, as well as genes involved in pathways playing a central role in cellular neoplastic processes, such as growth, proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis. Tomentosin also induced endoplasmic reticulum stress via upregulation of cyclic AMP‑dependent transcription factor ATF‑4 and DNA damage‑inducible transcript 3 protein genes, suggesting that in the presence of tomentosin the protective unfolded protein response signaling may induce cell apoptosis. The functional connections analysis executed using the Connectivity Map tool, suggested that the effects of tomentosin on RPMI‑8226 cells might be similar to those exerted by heat shock proteins inhibitors. Taken together, these data suggested that tomentosin may be a potential drug candidate for the treatment of MM. AD - Department of Medical, Surgical and Experimental Sciences, University of Sassari, I‑07100 Sassari, Sardinia, Italy Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, I‑07100 Sassari, Sardinia, Italy Kitos Biotech Srls, Porto Conte Ricerche, I‑07100 Sassari, Sardinia, Italy Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sassari, I‑07100 Sassari, Sardinia, Italy AU - Virdis,Patrizia AU - Migheli,Rossana AU - Bordoni,Valentina AU - Fiorentino,Francesco,Paolo AU - Sanna,Luca AU - Marchesi,Irene AU - Pintore,Giorgio AU - Galleri,Grazia AU - Muroni,Maria,Rosaria AU - Bagella,Luigi AU - Fozza,Claudio AU - De Miglio,Maria,Rosaria AU - Podda,Luigi AU - Virdis,Patrizia AU - Migheli,Rossana AU - Bordoni,Valentina AU - Fiorentino,Francesco,Paolo AU - Sanna,Luca AU - Marchesi,Irene AU - Pintore,Giorgio AU - Galleri,Grazia AU - Muroni,Maria,Rosaria AU - Bagella,Luigi AU - Fozza,Claudio AU - De Miglio,Maria,Rosaria AU - Podda,Luigi AU - Virdis,Patrizia AU - Migheli,Rossana AU - Bordoni,Valentina AU - Fiorentino,Francesco,Paolo AU - Sanna,Luca AU - Marchesi,Irene AU - Pintore,Giorgio AU - Galleri,Grazia AU - Muroni,Maria,Rosaria AU - Bagella,Luigi AU - Fozza,Claudio AU - De Miglio,Maria,Rosaria AU - Podda,Luigi DA - 2021/12/01 DO - 10.3892/ijmm.2021.5046 IS - 6 JO - Int J Mol Med KW - multiple myeloma tomentosin cytotoxicity apoptosis gene expression profiling cyclic AMP‑dependent transcription factor ATF‑4 DNA damage‑inducible transcript 3 protein Protein‑Protein Interaction network PY - 2021 SN - 1107-3756 1791-244X SP - 213 ST - Clarifying the molecular mechanism of tomentosin‑induced antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects in human multiple myeloma via gene expression profile and genetic interaction network analysis T2 - International Journal of Molecular Medicine TI - Clarifying the molecular mechanism of tomentosin‑induced antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects in human multiple myeloma via gene expression profile and genetic interaction network analysis UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ijmm.2021.5046 VL - 48 ER -