Cervical cancer represents a public health problem, develops resistance to traditional therapies and cost-of-treatment is high. These disadvantages have led to the search for alternative bioactive-compound-based therapies. Said bioactive compounds include phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and tannins. The present study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effect of a P. plicata extract on the HeLa cell line. Viability and apoptosis assays were run on the two cell lines treated with the extract. The peptides, up- and down-expressed in both cell lines, were identified by PDQuest analysis software and high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS). Our results show that a 500 mg/L treatment deregulated cell viability, with different apoptotic morphologies observed which are associated with the presence of bio-compounds, which up- and down-regulated the peptides. In conclusion, P. plicata regulates proteins associated with apoptosis in HeLa cancer cells.

Cancer has been a public health problem that has gained a lot of death. However, in spite of the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer, women follow the struggle versus this disease. Also, those patients suffer from limited efficacy and specificity, undesirable effects, drug resistance, and a high cost of treatments. Currently, several studies have demonstrated the efficiency of natural products, called bioactive compounds, against cervical cancer cell lines. Bioactive compounds, including polyphenols and phenolic acids or flavonoids, etc., have antioxidant and pro-oxidant properties. These compounds are efficacy and show high specificity because probably they act as anti-oxidant and pro-oxidant. The prooxidant activity obstructs growth factors related to different signalling pathways that trigger cancer. Although, usually this kind of compounds helps for dispatching the apoptosis in cervical cancer cell. The aim of this chapter is reviewing how bioactive compounds affect the signalling pathways.