The Anticancer Activity of Oleanane-type Saponin from Bombax ceiba (in vitro) and Theoretical Investigation of Signaling Pathway

Abstract

Bombax ceiba is a traditional medicinal tree that is useful in the treatment of anti-tumor, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, colds, coughs, etc. β-amyrin is a biologically active compound that was isolated from the EtOH extract of B. ceiba leaves. This work describes the anticancer activity of the leaf extract and isolated compound against human breast (MDA-MB-231 and BT-549), lung (A-549) and colon (SW-480) cancer cell lines, and the relation of the compound with anticancer activity was supported by molecular docking. The structure of the isolated compound was confirmed by the methods of 1D-NMR, 2D-NMR, and mass spectrometry data. The anticancer activity of the EtOH leaf extract and isolated compound was determined on colon, breast, and lung cancer cell lines by MTT assay. Docking studies of the isolated compound were done with the help of softwares such as Discovery Studio Visualizer, chem3D pro 12.0.2.1076, Auto Dock Tools-1.5.6, and Auto dock vina. The structure of the isolated compound was confirmed as 3β-olean-12-en-3-ol (β-amyrin). β-amyrin and the EtOH leaf extract both showed high inhibitory activities on BT-549 cancer cell line. The docking studies of the isolated compound exhibited best docking scores with PI3K and mTOR. From the best docking scores, it was clear that β-amyrin has a high probability of target of PI3Kα and mTOR. The anticancer activity of the EtOH leaf extract of Bombax ceiba and its isolated β-amyrin showed excellent anticancer activities on breast cancer cell lines and β-amyrin showed high inhibitory activities with PI3Kα and mTOR kinases by docking studies.