“…To enlighten the molecular mechanisms of the cytotoxicity of UA ( Figure 1 A) on cancer cells, we first examined its ability to kill various types of cancer cells in culture by detecting plasma membrane-permeabilized cells using a membrane-impermeable propidium iodide (PI) dye. In agreement with previous reports [ 7 , 9 , 47 , 48 ], treatment with UA for 24 h induced death in human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7) cells, osteosarcoma (U2OS) cells, cervical adenocarcinoma (HeLa) cells, and colorectal carcinoma (HCT116) cells in a dose-dependent manner, with lethal dose 50 (LD 50 ) values of 12.8 µM, 7.7 µM, 16.8 µM, and 19 µM, respectively ( Figure 1 B; Supplementary Figure S1B ). Even at a concentration of 8 μM that only killed ~5.5% of MCF7 cells in 24 h ( Figure 1 B), a treatment for 48 h reduced the total cell count of the MCF7 cells with >50% in comparison to the untreated or vehicle-treated cells ( Figure 1 B), suggesting that UA inhibited the cell proliferation.…”