Objective To investigate the effect of sophorae fructus flavonoids on cell proliferation, migration, invasion and secretion of inflammatory factors in breast cancer.

Methods The breast cancer cells BT549 were divided into normal control (NC) group, low-dose group, medium-dose group, high-dose group, miR-NC group, miR-199a-3p group, high-dose+anti-miR-NC group, and high-dose+anti-miR-199a-3p group. CCK-8 and clone formation assays were used to evaluate cell proliferation; Transwell method was performed to evaluate cell migration and invasion. Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the expression of miR-199a-3p. EILSA method was used to detect the levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in the cell culture supernatant. Expression levels of p-p38MAPK and p-p65 proteins were detected by Western blot.

Results Compared with the NC group, the cell viability, clone formation number, migration number and invasion number of BT549 cells in the low-, medium- and high-dose groups were significantly reduced, the expression of miR-199a-3p was significantly increased, and the levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β in the cell culture supernatant were significantly reduced (P < 0.05). Compared with the miR-NC group, the cell viability, clone formation number, migration number and invasion number of BT549 cell in the miR-199a-3p group were significantly reduced, and the levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β in the cell culture supernatant were significantly reduced as well (P < 0.05). Compared with the high-dose+anti-miR-NC group, the cell viability, clone formation number, migration number and invasion number of BT549 in the high-dose+anti-miR-199a-3p group were significantly increased, and the levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β in the cell culture supernatant were significantly increased as well (P < 0.05). Compared with the NC group, the expression levels of p-p38MAPK and p-p65 proteins of BT549 cells in the high-dose group were significantly reduced (P < 0.05). Compared with the high-dose+anti-miR-NC group, the expression levels of p-p38MAPK and p-p65 proteins of BT549 cells in high-dose+anti-miR-199a-3p group were significantly increased (P < 0.05).

Conclusion Sophorae fructus flavonoids can inhibit cell proliferation, migration, invasion and inflammation reaction in breast cancer, and its mechanism may be achieved by up-regulating the expression of miR-199a-3p and inhibiting p38MAPK/NF-κB pathway.