Honokiol Exhibits Anti-Tumor Effects in Breast Cancer by Modulating the miR-148a-5p-CYP1B1 Axis

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in female patients. There is a significant lack of therapeutic strategies for BC, particularly triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Honokiol (HNK), a lignin extracted from the Magnolia genus plant, has demonstrated numerous pharmacological effects. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the antitumor effect of HNK on BC cells and employ high-throughput sequencing to elucidate its potential mechanism. We found that HNK significantly inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis on BC cell lines in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, HNK treatment suppressed migration and colony formation and initiated the intrinsic apoptotic pathway specifically in MDA-MB-231 cells. High-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis revealed that miR-148a-5p expression was significantly up-regulated, whereas CYP1B1 expression was down-regulated following HNK treatment. Importantly, survival analysis based on TCGA database showed high miR-148a-5p expression was correlated with a better prognosis for BC patients. Inhibition of miR-148a-5p by inhibitor not only increased cell viability but also attenuated apoptosis induced by HNK. Finally, a strong synergistic effect between HNK and paclitaxel was observed in vitro. In conclusion, our study validated the antitumor efficacy of HNK against human BC cells and elucidated its underlying mechanism through high-throughput sequencing, thereby providing compelling evidence for further exploration of the potential clinical application of HNK towards the treatment of BC.