Background: Over the years, plants have been utilized worldwide for the treatment of cancer in the traditional system of medicine, notably in the majority of developing nations. The use of chemotherapeutic drugs is frequently associated with lethal side effects when treating cancer. Therefore, the panacea to the vicious side effects linked to synthetic pharmaceuticals is the alternative usage of widely accessible and affordable therapeutic approaches. Chicoric acid, a major constituent of Cichorium intybus, has recently been shown to exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antiviral, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, and anticancer properties. Purpose: Except for a few preliminary studies, no detailed study on the chemotherapeutic efficacy of chicoric acid against cancer cells has been done till now. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the potential of chicoric acid against colon cancer cells. Methods: Different in vitro assays like MTT, DAPI staining, rhodamine staining, H2DCFDA staining, caspase activity, and cell analysis were performed on colon cancer HCT116 cells to assess their growth inhibitory properties. Results: According to the results, chicoric acid dose-dependently suppressed the growth of colon cancer HCT116 cells by inducing cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase and apoptosis via both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways. In silico findings unveiled the cell cycle regulatory capacity of chicoric acid through binding CDC25 phosphatases, implying its potential as an antiproliferative agent capable of suppressing cell growth. Conclusion: Collectively, the results suggested strong chemopreventive potential of chicoric acid against colon cancer cells. Thus, chicoric acid may turn out to be an excellent anticancer agent, which may be explored in the future for the therapeutic drug development against cancer.
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