Abstract
Purpose: To determine the anticancer effect of a pentacyclic triterpenoid, isomultiflorenol, against human cervical cancer.Methods: The proliferation of cancer cells was determined using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5- diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Cell viability was measured with colony forming assay, while flow cytometry was used to study phase distribution in cancer cell mitosis. Electron microscopy was employed for the determination of autophagy induction in the cancer cells, while western blotting was used to assay protein expressions.Results: Isomultiflorenol significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited the proliferation and viability of cervical cancer cells in a concentration-dependent manner. The IC50 of isomultiflorenol was 10 μM for HeLa cells, and 90 μM for normal EV304 cells. The anti-proliferative effects were exerted as a result of arrest of HeLa cells at G2/M phase. The G2/M phase cells increased from 10.34 % in control to 30.21 % on treatment with 20 μM isomultiflorenol. Furthermore, administration of isomultiflorenol led to induction of cancer cell autophagy via mitochondrial apoptotic signaling.Conclusion: Isomultiflorenol inhibits human cervical cancer cells in vitro by inducing cell cycle arrest and autophagy. Thus, it is a potential lead molecule in the development of cervical cancer chemotherapy.
 Keywords: Cervical cancer, Terpenoids, Isomultiflorenol, Autophagy, Cell cycle arrest, Apoptosis
Highlights
Recent studies on natural compounds have revealed that these compounds exhibit tremendous medicinal and health-promoting properties [1]
Isomultiflorenol selectively decreased the proliferation of HeLa cancer cells
Isomultiflorenol treatment led to cell cycle arrest of HeLa cells at G2/M mitotic phase
Summary
Recent studies on natural compounds have revealed that these compounds exhibit tremendous medicinal and health-promoting properties [1]. A vast number of compounds under the group of terpenoids have been shown to possess strong anticancer properties [4] They markedly inhibited the proliferation of human cancer cells in in vitro studies [5]. Not much is known on the antitumor effects of isomultiflorenol against human cervical cancer This is the basis of the present study. The HeLa cancer cells were cultured with 5, 10 or 20 μM isomultiflorenol for 4 days and their colony forming potential was assessed. The results indicated that isomultiflorenol, in a concentration dependent manner, decreased the colony-forming potential of HeLa cancer cells (Figure 3). This suggests that isomultiflorenol decreased the viability of cervical cancer cells. The data are presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD)
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