In vitro cytotoxic activity of isolated compounds from Malaysian Calophyllum species

Abstract

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. In our continuing search for new anticancer agents, four Malaysian Calophyllum species, namely C. castaneum, C. teysmannii, C. canum, and C. sclerophyllum, had been phytochemically studied to give compounds 1-12. All the isolated compounds were evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against nasopharyngeal (SUNE1, TW01, CNE1, HK1) and breast (HCC38, MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, SKBR3) cancer cell lines via methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium cell viability assay. Among the tested compounds, isodispar B (1) showed a promising dosedependent and a broad spectrum of cytotoxic effects on all the tested cancer cell lines; in particular, potent inhibitory activities were observed on nasopharyngeal cancer cell lines (SUNE1, TW01, CNE1, HK1), with IC 50 values ranging from 3.8 to 11.5 µM. In comparison with 5-fluorouracil as positive control, compound 1 was found to exhibit at least sixfold much higher activity than the standard drug used against the nasopharyngeal cell lines. Compound 1 was later found to induce apoptotic cell death in nasopharyngeal cancer cells, as evidenced by 'Cell Death Detection' ELI-SA PLUS kit, and exhibited good cancer-specific cytotoxicity when tested with noncancerous NP460 cells. Meanwhile, compounds 2-12 displayed moderate to weak activities against the tested cancer cell lines. The findings have highlighted the therapeutic potential of compound 1 against nasopharyngeal cancer.

Drug‐like dietary vanilloids induce anticancer activity through proliferation inhibition and regulation of bcl‐related apoptotic proteins

“…Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium cell viability assay was applied in this study to access the cytotoxicity of vanilloids on cancer cells, as described previously with modification (Chong, Mai, Leong, & Wong, ; Lim et al, ; Mai et al, ; Mai et al, ; Mai, Wong, Tan, Balijepalli, & Pichika, ; Tan et al, ). First, all vanilloids were prepared freshly in stock solution of 100 mM in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) before dilution to the highest working concentration of 1 mM using sterile distilled water.…”

A review of the effects of Calophyllum spp. on cancer cells

“…nasopharyngeal cancer cell lines (IC50 < 30µM) 24 . More recently, C. castaneum isoblancoic acid also demonstrated potent cytotoxic activity against C6 (rat glioma cell line) and HCT-116 cells (IC50 < 27µM) while its friedelinol exhibited inhibitory activity against C6 cells (Lim et al 2019).…”

Tocotrienols Modulate a Life or Death Decision in Cancers

“…Hence, more effective and potent anticancer agents are needed to save more lives from cancer death. Guided by several previous successes of isolating chemotherapeutic agents from plant sources, such as etoposide, paclitaxel, and vinblastine, considerable attention has been given to identify more effective anticancer agents or novel chemical entities from plant reservoirs [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Exhibiting cancer selectivity and exerting multitargeted actions for effectively killing various types of cancers, tocotrienols (T3) appear as a promising, novel anticancer candidate.…”