Suppression of phosphoinositide 3‐kinase/phosphoinositide‐dependent kinase‐1/serum and glucocorticoid‐induced protein kinase pathway

In the current study, the pivotal roles of serum and glucocorticoid‐induced protein kinase (SGK1) and NF‐kB related signalings known as prognostic biomarkers in cervical cancers were explored in the antitumor effect of a ginseng saponin metabolite compound K (CK) in HeLa and SiHa cervical cancer cells. CK exerted significant cytotoxicity, induced sub‐G1 accumulation, and attenuated the expression of proPoly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase (pro‐PARP) and Pro‐cysteine aspartyl‐specific protease (pro‐caspase3) in HeLa cells more than in SiHa cells. CK inhibited phosphorylation of SGK1 and its upstream genes, phosphoinositide 3‐kinases (PI3K), and phosphoinositide‐dependent kinase‐1 (PDK1) in HeLa cells. In addition, CK suppressed the phosphorylation of SGK1, NF‐κB, and inhibitor of kappa B (IκB) and also NF‐κB target genes such as X‐linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein and B‐cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl‐2) in HeLa cells. Notably, Immunoprecipitation revealed that SGK1 binds to PI3K or PDK1 and also CK disturbed the binding between SGK1 and PI3K or PDK1 in HeLa cells. Furthermore, PI3K inhibitor LY294002 decreased expression of PI3K, p‐PDK1, p‐SGK1, and pro‐caspase3 and SGK1 inhibitor GSK650394 also reduced expression of NF‐κB and pro‐caspase3 just like CK in HeLa cells. Overall, these findings suggest that CK induces apoptosis via suppression of PI3K/PDK1/SGK1 and NF‐κB signaling axis.