Tea polyphenols present in green tea show cancer chemopreventive effects in many tumor models. Epidemiological studies have also suggested that green tea consumption might be effective in the prevention of certain human cancers. In the present study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of the inhibition of cell proliferation by tea polyphenols in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell line CNE1-LMP1. Methods: CNE1-LMP1 cells were treated with tea polyphenols at various doses (0, 25, 50, 100, 200 μg/ml) for 24 hours, the morphology of cells was observed by light microscopy, and cell survival rate was determined by MTT assay. At the same time, cell cycle of CNE1-LMP1 was analyzed by flow cytometry. Cyclin D1 transcription was analyzed by cyclin D1 promoterluciferase reporter system and expression of cyclin D1 protein by Western blot analysis. Transactivities of NF-kB and AP-1 was analyzed by Dual-fluorescence reporter gene system. Results: After treatment of CNE1-LMP1 cells with tea polyphenols, the number of proliferating cells was obviously decreased as determined by light microscopy and MTT assay (from 100% to 89.4%, 83.3%, 74.8% and 38.1%). With the increase of tea polyphenols concentrations, the number of cells in S-phase was obviously decreased, and the number of cells in G1-phase from 22.20% to 13.16%, and the number of cells in G0/G1 phase was elevated from 68.5% to 74.08%. It suggests that tea polyphenols could arrest the cell cycle at both of the two checkpoints. Furthermore, transcription and were obviously declined 7-8 folds (100-200 mg/ml tea polyphenols or EGCG group) and expression of cyclin D1 protein also decreased in a dose-dependent manner. Transactivities of NF-kB and AP-1 were obviously down-regulated in CNE1-LMP1 cells. Conclusion: Green tea polyphenols could inhibit cell proliferation, by suppressing the activity of NF-kB and AP-1, and by down-regulation of the transcription of cyclin D1.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which play a role in tumorigenesis, may also serve as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers. However, studies on human miRNA profiles in plasma from nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients are in their infancy. Here, we used microarrays to perform systematic profiling of human miRNAs in plasma from NPC patients. We subsequently used real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) to validate miRNAs with aberrant expression that could serve as potential biomarkers. By comparing the plasma miRNA profiles of 31 NPC patients and 19 controls, 39 of 887 human miRNAs were found to be aberrantly expressed. Considering the fold change andP value,miR-548q andmiR-483-5p were validated in 132 samples from 82 NPC patients and 50 controls. Moreover, high expression of miR-548q andmiR-483-5p was further found in 3 NPC celllines and clinical biopsy tissues from 54 NPC patients and 22 controls. Our results revealed thatmiR-548q andmiR-483-5p are potential biomarkers of NPC. Combining the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses of these 2 miRNAs, an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.737 with 67.1% sensitivity and 68.0% specificity were obtained, showing the preliminary diagnostic value of plasma miRNAs. Moreover, most NPC patients with a poor outcome exhibited high expression (> median) ofmiR-548q (70.6%) andmiR-483-5p (64.7%) in tissue samples, indicating their prognostic value. The high expression levels ofmiR-548q andmiR-483-5p in plasma, celllines, and clinical tissues of NPC patients indicate that their roles in NPC should be explored in the future.