**Active Compound of** *Pharbitis* **Semen (***Pharbitis nil* **Seeds) Suppressed KRAS-Driven Colorectal Cancer and Restored Muscle Cell Function during Cancer Progression**

#### **Jisu Song 1,2, Heejung Seo 1,3, Mi-Ryung Kim 1, Sang-Jae Lee 1, Sooncheol Ahn 2,\* and Minjung Song 1,4,\***


Academic Editor: Ra ffaele Pezzani

Received: 21 May 2020; Accepted: 18 June 2020; Published: 22 June 2020

**Abstract:** Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS)-driven colorectal cancer (CRC) is notorious to target with drugs and has shown ine ffective treatment response. The seeds of *Pharbitis nil,* also known as morning glory, have been used as traditional medicine in East Asia. We focused on whether *Pharbitis nil* seeds have a suppressive e ffect on mutated KRAS-driven CRC as well as reserving muscle cell functions during CRC progression. Seeds of *Pharbitis nil* (*Pharbitis* semen) were separated by chromatography and the active compound of *Pharbitis* semen (PN) was purified by HPLC. The compound PN e fficiently suppressed the proliferation of mutated KRAS-driven CRC cells and their clonogenic potentials in a concentration-dependent manner. It also induced apoptosis of SW480 human colon cancer cells and cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase. The CRC related pathways, including RAS/ERK and AKT/mTOR, were assessed and PN reduced the phosphorylation of AKT and mTOR. Furthermore, PN preserved muscle cell proliferation and myotube formation in cancer conditioned media. In summary, PN significantly suppressed mutated KRAS-driven cell growth and reserved muscle cell function. Based on the current study, PN could be considered as a promising starting point for the development of a nature-derived drug against KRAS-mutated CRC progression.

**Keywords:** *Pharbitis nil*; colorectal cancer; KRAS; muscle function
