title: Study of the antiproliferative potential of seed extracts from Northeastern Brazilian plants.
abstract: This study assessed the antiproliferative and cytotoxic potential against tumor lines of ethanolic seed extracts of 21 plant species belonging to different families from Northeastern Brazil. In addition, some underlying mechanisms involved in this cytotoxicity were also investigated. Among the 21 extracts tested, the MTT assay after 72 h of incubation demonstrated that only the ethanolic extract obtained from Myracrodruon urundeuva seeds (EEMUS), which has steroids, alkaloids and phenols, showed in vitro cytotoxic activity against human cancer cells, being 2-fold more active on leukemia HL-60 line [IC(50) value of 12.5 (9.5-16.7) μg/mL] than on glioblastoma SF-295 [IC(50) of 25.1 (17.3-36.3) μg/mL] and Sarcoma 180 cells [IC(50) of 38.1 (33.5-43.4) μg/mL]. After 72h exposure, flow cytometric and morphological analyses of HL-60-treated cells showed that EEMUS caused decrease in cell number, volume and viability as well as internucleosomal DNA fragmentation in a dose-dependent way, suggesting that the EEMUS triggers apoptotic pathways of cell death.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Campus Senador Helvídio Nunes de Barros, Universidade Federal do Piauí, Picos, Brasil. pmifepe@yahoo.com.br
authors.forename: Paulo Michel P
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Davi F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Farias
authors.forename: Martônio P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Viana
authors.forename: Terezinha M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Ilka M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos
authors.forename: Bruno M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Cláudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pessoa
authors.forename: Letícia V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Costa-Lotufo
authors.forename: Manoel O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Moraes
authors.forename: Ana F U
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Carvalho
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001938:Brazil; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor / Q000187:drug effects; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification; D012639:Seeds / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; D010936:Plant Extracts