Congea chinensisMoldenke, a traditional medicinal plant in China, produces dual in vitro effects: cytotoxic antitumor activity and TERT transcription activation. Mus musculus

Natural medicinal plants, also named herbs, have attracted considerable research attention for their potential pharmacological activities, such as antitumor and longevity-promoting activities. In this study, weevaluated the pharmacological activities of CCM and MPRC2-8, two novel extracts of CongeachinensisMoldenke, which is an underutilized ornamental plant that is consumed in China. We found that both CCM and MPRC2-8 activated the expression of p53 and TERT. In addition, CCM and MPRC2-8 were selectively cytotoxic toward tumor cells, especially MPRC2-8, which showed higher cytotoxicity (by 10-20 times) than CCM. The cytotoxic mechanism of MPRC2-8 was identified as ROS generation-induced apoptosis. Interestingly, MPRC2-8 showed opposite regulatory effectson the SIRT1-p53 axis in A549 and HT-29 cells, which have different p53 statuses. To exhaustively clarify the molecularmechanism of this plant,we also investigated transcriptomealterations using mRNA-sequence analysis. Our results showed that CCM and MPRC2-8 induced the p53, apoptosis and ROS signalingpathways, consistent with the results of cellular experiments in vitro. Thus, our study reveals that CCM andMPRC2-8 have two complementary activities, antitumor activity and TERT-activating activity, with potential antitumor and longevity-improving effects.