Are salty liquid food flavorings in vitro antitumor substances?

Francisco R.S Carvalho,Gardenia F Rodrigues,Paulo M.P Ferreira,Claudia Pessoa,Daisy J.B Lima,Antonio G Moura,Narcia M.F Nunes,Marcilia P Costa,Ana Paula Peron

doi:10.1590/0001-3765201620150553

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the antiproliferative, cytotoxic and genotoxic potential of salty liquid synthetic flavorings of Butter, Cheddar Cheese and Onion. The antiproliferative potential (2.9-1500 µg/mL) was assessed by MTT assay after 72h using the human tumor lines SF-295 (glioblastoma), OVCAR-8 (ovarian), HCT-116 (colon) and HL-60 (promyelocytic leukemia) and primary cultures of murine Sarcoma 180 (S180) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Allium cepa bulbs were exposed to growing respective doses (1 mL and 2 mL). Only Butter and Cheddar flavorings revealed cytotoxic activity on cancer cells, with IC50 values ranging from 125.4 µg/mL (Cheddar - HCT-116) to 402.6 µg/mL (Butter - OVCAR-8). Butter flavoring was the most cytotoxic on PBMC (136.3 µg/mL) and increased cell division rate in relation to the mitotic index but did not cause cellular aberrations. Onion and Cheddar flavorings reduced the mitotic index after 24h and 48h exposure, but only Onion flavoring resulted in cellular aberrations and mitotic spindle abnormalities, such as anaphase and telophase bridges, micronucleated cells, conchicine-metaphases and amplifications. So, Butter, Onion and/or Cheddar flavorings caused significant changes in the division of meristematic cells of A. cepa and presented cytotoxic action even on decontrolled proliferating human tumor cells.

Highlights

Food additives are compounds intentionally added, with no nutritional benefit, aiming to modify the physical, chemical, biological or sensory characteristics of food products
Researchers report that the use of flavoring substances, mainly the synthetic ones, raises a number of questions regarding their toxicity in systemic and cellular level, and point out the urgent need for studies assessing the toxic potential of food flavoring (Wrolstad and Culver 2012)
This study evaluated the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of synthetic food flavorings of butter, onion and cheddar on vegetal normal and human and murine tumor cells

Summary

Introduction

Food additives are compounds intentionally added, with no nutritional benefit, aiming to modify the physical, chemical, biological or sensory characteristics of food products. Flavorings are considered a controversial progress of the food industry, once many health experts suggest that these additives, as well as food dyes, contribute significantly to impaired diet and for the triggering of pathologies (Cheeseman 2012) In this way, researchers report that the use of flavoring substances, mainly the synthetic ones, raises a number of questions regarding their toxicity in systemic and cellular level, and point out the urgent need for studies assessing the toxic potential of food flavoring (Wrolstad and Culver 2012). ANVISA (2007) states as constant and priority the improvement of safety on the use of additives in food formulation In this context, cytotoxic methods revolutionized cell-based drug screening by offering a highthroughput screening colorimetric assay, whereas they simplified sample processing which requires no radioisotope but they are sensitive enough for miniaturization into 96-well plate formats, as seen in MTT, ATP and Alamar BlueTM assays. These methods have been very used in the search for new substances with antiproliferative activity and toxic potencial (Skehan et al 1990, Al-Nasiry et al 2007, Leite et al 2014, Ferreira et al 2015, Monção et al 2015)

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