Alpha-santalol is a naturally occurring sesquiterpene that is derived from sandalwood oil. Its wide range of health benefits have been attributed to the modulation of various signalling pathways involved in the development of a particular disease. For example, the antitumour and cancer preventive properties of alpha-santalol have been shown to involve cell death induction through apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in various cancer models. A marked decrease in inflammatory markers have also been shown with alpha-santalol administration in skin tissue models. The current review is aimed at bringing the most recent advances of alpha-santalol against various disease-specific models and highlighting its associated mechanistic details.

α-Santalol, a terpenoid found in sandalwood oil, has been shown to inhibit cancer cell growth in vitro by inducing apoptosis. This study was performed to investigate the anticancer properties of α-santalol associated with the induction of apoptosis in cultured MCF-7 (estrogen receptor (ER) positive, and wild type p53) and MDA-MB-231 (ER-negative and mutant p53) breast cancer cells. Expression of major proteins examined in the study were determined using standard Western blot protocol and analyzed by LICOR-Odyssey infra-red scanner. Total protein levels of survivin were confirmed by survivin ELISA kit. Cell viability was assessed by trypan blue dye exclusion assay, and caspase-3 activity was determined by caspase-3 (active) ELISA kit. Treatment of breast cancer cells for 6 and 9 hour time intervals with α-santalol (20, 40 μM) resulted in statistically significant concentration-dependent downregulation of survivin. pAkt levels were found to be slightly upregulated despite the downregulation of survivin. Pharmacological inhibition of the PI3K-Akt pathway did not result in a synergistic/additive increase in cell death or caspase-3 activity caused by α-santalol. The study reveals that survivin downregulation by α-santalol in breast cancer cells is not mediated through the PI3K-Akt pathway. Citation Format: AJAY BOMMAREDDY, KARRYN CRISAMORE, SARAH FILLMAN, SARAH BROZENA, JAMES STEIGERWALT, TERRA LANDIS, ADAM L. VANWERT, CHANDRADHAR DWIVEDI. Survivin downregulation by α-santalol is not mediated through PI3K-Akt pathway in human breast cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4608.

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