Vitamin B₂ Sensitizes Cancer Cells to Vitamin-C-Induced Cell Death via Modulation of Akt and Bad Phosphorylation.

Ni Chen, Shutao Yin, Xinhua Song, Lihong Fan, Hongbo Hu

Index: J. Agric. Food Chem. 63 , 6739-48, (2015)

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Abstract

Vitamin C is an essential dietary nutrient that has a variety of biological functions. Recent studies have provided promising evidence for its additional health benefits, including anticancer activity. Vitamin B2, another essential dietary nutrient, often coexists with vitamin C in some fruits, vegetables, or dietary supplements. The objective of the present study is to determine whether the combination of vitamin C and B2 can achieve a synergistic anticancer activity. MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and A549 cells were employed to evaluate the combinatory effects of vitamin C and B2. We found that the combination of vitamin C and B2 resulted in a synergistic cell death induction in all cell lines tested. Further mechanistic investigations revealed that vitamin B2 sensitized cancer cells to vitamin C through inhibition of Akt and Bad phosphorylation. Our findings identified vitamin B2 as a promising sensitizer for improving the efficacy of vitamin-C-based cancer chemoprevention and chemotherapy.