Amentoflavone induces cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and autophagy in BV-2 cells.

Previous studies have shown that amentoflavone (AF) elicits anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects. To further investigate the effects of AF on the microglia cell line BV-2, proteomic analysis was performed to screen potential key regulators. The top 5 canonical pathways associated with AF treatment were EIF2 signaling, regulation of eIF4 and p70s6k signaling, mTOR signaling, protein ubiquitination pathway and phagosome maturation. The top up-regulated genes were DOCK2, SEC23A, ME1, UGGT1 and STOM, while the most down-regulated molecules were IGF2R, ATP5O, DDX47, WBP11 and IKBIP. AF significantly decreased BV-2 cell proliferation. It induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M, increased CDK2, p27Kip1 and p53/p-p53, and decreased CDK1/CDC2 and cyclin B1. Cell apoptosis was induced, with increased levels of BAX, c-caspase-3 and c-caspase-9, and decreased levels of BCL-XL. Increased level of autophagosome induced by AF was observed, and increased Beclin-1 and decreased phosphorylation of PI3K and Erk1 were found as well. In conclusion, AF induces cell cycle arrest at G2/M, promotes apoptosis and autophagy in BV-2 cells, which may account for the anti-inflammatory effect of AF in epilepsy.