Abstract: Objective To investigate the potential anti-proliferative effect of sodium cantharidinate on pancreatic cancer cells PANC-1，CFPAC-1 in vitro and explore its possible anti-cancer mechanism.
Methods Different concentration of sodium cantharidina（10，20，30，40，50μmol／L）were added to PANC-1 and CFPAC-1 cells for 24, 48h. The MTT assay was performed to reveal the inhibitory effect on cell proliferation. Clone formation ability was determined by flat plate clone formation assay. Cell cycle was tested by flow cytometry using PI staining.
Results Sodium cantharidinate with different concentration treatment inhibited the proliferation in a dose and time-dependent manner. Meanwhile， Sodium cantharidinate（10μmol／L） repressed pancreatic cancer cells clone formation and induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. The percentage of G2/M cell cycle in PANC-1 cells increased from （24.75±1.08）% to （35.68±1.84）%, from （28.88±1.66）% to （36.34±1.25）% in CFPAC-1 cells.
Conclusion Sodium cantharidinate has obvious cytotoxic efficacy and inhibit the growth to human pancreatic cancer cel1s PANC-1 and CFPAC-1. The inhibition mechanism can be associated with arresting cell cycle at G2/M phase.