Abstract
Malignant melanoma is an aggressive type of cancer and the deadliest form of skin cancer. Even though enormous efforts have been undertaken, in particular the treatment options against the metastasizing form are challenging and the prognosis is generally poor. A novel therapeutical approach is the application of secondary plant constituents occurring in food and food products. Herein, the effect of the dietary chalcone cardamonin, inter alia found in Alpinia species, was tested using human malignant melanoma cells. These data were compared to cardamonin treated normal melanocytes and dermal fibroblasts representing healthy cells. To investigate the impact of cardamonin on tumor and normal cells, it was added to monolayer cell cultures and cytotoxicity, proliferation, tumor invasion, and apoptosis were studied with appropriate cell biological and biochemical methods. Cardamonin treatment resulted in an apoptosis-mediated increase in cytotoxicity towards tumor cells, a decrease in their proliferation rate, and a lowered invasive capacity, whereas the viability of melanocytes and fibroblasts was hardly affected at such concentrations. A selective cytotoxic effect of cardamonin on melanoma cells compared to normal (healthy) cells was shown in vitro. This study along with others highlights that dietary chalcones may be a valuable tool in anticancer therapies which has to be proven in the future in vivo.
Highlights
The worldwide incidence of all forms of skin cancer has significantly risen over the last decades, and especially the malignant melanoma is responsible for the majority of skin cancer deaths [1,2,3]
At concentrations of 5, 10 and 20 μM CD (Fig 1) the viability of the A375 melanoma cells in subconfluent monolayer cultures was significantly lowered below 50% already after 24 h treatment compared with mock-treated cells which were set at 100% (Fig 2)
It currently seems that the treatment of metastatic melanoma could be revolutionized by personalized targeted therapy approaches [84], such an approach bears a significant risk regarding the development of drug resistance or overstimulating the immune system [18,85,86]
Summary
The worldwide incidence of all forms of skin cancer has significantly risen over the last decades, and especially the malignant melanoma is responsible for the majority of skin cancer deaths [1,2,3]. The incidence of cutaneous melanoma varies among populations. The disease occurs very frequently with fair-skinned Caucasian populations in Australia and New Zealand followed by North America and Northern/Western Europe [4]. The cause of melanoma is not precisely known, but there is no doubt so far, that the major risk factor is over exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV) due to intensive sun bathing, increased outdoor recreational. Selective cytotoxicity of the dietary chalcone cardamonin (CD) on melanoma cells
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