Objective To investigate the effect of calycosin on proliferation and apoptosis of HeLa cells of cervical cancer and its possible mechanism.

Methods Human cervical cancer HeLa cells were cultured in vitro and divided into control group (without treatment with calycosin), calycosin-low group (25 μmol/L), calycosin-medium group (50 μmol/L) and calycosin-high group (100 μmol/L); the cells were cultured with 100 μmol/L of calycosin for 24 h, and were divided into microRNA (miR)-NC group, miR-4766-5p group, calycosin+anti-miR-NC group, and calycosin+anti-miR-4766-5p group, respectively. Cell proliferation, clonal formation and apoptosis were detected by CCK-8 assay, plate cloning assay and flow cytometry; real-time quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot were used to detect the expression levels of miR-4766-5p and apoptosis-related proteins, respectively.

Results Compared with the control group, cell proliferation was significantly inhibited, apoptosis-protein content and miR-4766-5p expression were significantly increased in a dose-dependent manner in the calycosin-low group, calycosin-medium group and calycosin-high group (P < 0.05). The expression level of miR-4766-5p in cervical cancer tissues was significantly decreased compared with paracancer tissues (P < 0.05). Compared with the miR-NC group, the cell proliferation capacity of the miR-4766-5p group was significantly decreased, and the apoptotic protein content was significantly increased (P < 0.05). The cell proliferation inhibition rate, apoptosis rate and cleaved-caspase3 and cleaved-caspase9 protein levels in the calycosin+anti-miR-4766-5p group were significantly lower than those in the calycosin+anti-miR-NC group, the increase of cell clonogenesis ability was significantly higher than that of the calycosin+anti-miR-NC group (P < 0.05).

Conclusion Calycosin can inhibit the proliferation of cervical cancer cells and induce cell apoptosis by up-regulating the expression of miR-4766-5p.