Plant-derived Antimicrobials have Similar Cytotoxic Effects on Cancerous and Non-cancerous Cells

Abstract

Essential oils and their active components, referred here as plant derived antimicrobials (PDAs), have been used for their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Many reports also document PDAs’ cytotoxic effects on cancerous cells, raising the hope that they could be used for cancer treatments. Due to the lack of specificity, we hypothesize that PDAs are cytotoxic to both cancerous and non-cancerous cells. Trans-cinnamaldehyde (TCA), carvacrol, and eugenol were assessed for their cytotoxicity on cancerous HeLa cells and normal skin fibroblasts (CCD-1123Sk, CCD) by MTT and LDH assays, flow cytometry, and reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). After 24 hours of treatment, carvacrol and TCA significantly decreased cell viability (by more than 50%) at 100 µg/ml, whereas eugenol was ineffective up to 400 µg/ml. Cell detachment and significantly increased apoptosis were observed with 100 µg/ml of TCA on both cell types. RT-qPCR for apoptotic genes (Bcl2, Casp3 and Casp8) and necrosis genes (Mlkl, Ripk1 and Ripk3) did not show significant differences between control and treated cells of both types, with the exception of eugenol-treated HeLa cells in which expression of Bcl2, Mlkl and Ripk1 was significantly higher than controls. Taken together, we conclude that the three PDAs studied here exhibited similar cytotoxic effects on both cancerous and non-cancerous cells.

pH-sensitive charge-conversion cinnamaldehyde polymeric prodrug micelles for effective targeted chemotherapy of osteosarcoma in vitro

“…CA is also known as an endogenous ROS generator to increase endogenous ROS production in tumor cells through mitochondrial dysfunction, thereby inhibiting tumor cell proliferation (Park and Baek, 2020;Zong et al, 2022). However, the disadvantages of CA are low solubility, high toxicity, and low bioavailability, which limit the application of CA as an antitumor drug (Ranjitkar et al, 2021). Thus, we developed a pH-sensitive charge-conversion cinnamaldehyde polymeric prodrug micelle [mPEG-b-P(C7-co-CA) micelles] for effective chemotherapy of osteosarcoma through targeted delivery, with the goal of promoting intracellular ROS generation and inducing osteosarcoma cell apoptosis (Scheme 1).…”