Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Anticancer activity of isomultiflorenol against human cervical cancer cells due to G2/M cell cycle arrest, autophagy and mitochondrial mediated apoptosis

Juan Li¹, Yuanyuan Chen²

¹Department of Medical Oncology; ²Department of Radiation Oncology, HangZhou Cancer Hospital, HangZhou, ZheJiang310002, China.

For correspondence:- Yuanyuan Chen Email: chenyuan061001@163.com Tel:+8657156006302

Accepted: 19 June 2020 Published: 31 July 2020

Citation: Li J, Chen Y. Anticancer activity of isomultiflorenol against human cervical cancer cells due to G2/M cell cycle arrest, autophagy and mitochondrial mediated apoptosis. Trop J Pharm Res 2020; 19(7):1423-1428 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v19i7.13

© 2020 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the anticancer effect of a pentacyclic triterpenoid, isomultiflorenol, against human cervical cancer.

Methods: The proliferation of cancer cells was determined using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Cell viability was measured with colony forming assay, while flow cytometry was used to study phase distribution in cancer cell mitosis. Electron microscopy was employed for the determination of autophagy induction in the cancer cells, while western blotting was used to assay protein expressions.

Results: Isomultiflorenol significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited the proliferation and viability of cervical cancer cells in a concentration-dependent manner. The IC₅₀ of isomultiflorenol was 10 µM for HeLa cells, and 90 µM for normal EV304 cells. The anti-proliferative effects were exerted as a result of arrest of HeLa cells at G2/M phase. The G2/M phase cells increased from 10.34 % in control to 30.21 % on treatment with 20 µM isomultiflorenol. Furthermore, administration of isomultiflorenol led to induction of cancer cell autophagy via mitochondrial apoptotic signaling.

Conclusion: Isomultiflorenol inhibits human cervical cancer cells in vitro by inducing cell cycle arrest and autophagy. Thus, it is a potential lead molecule in the development of cervical cancer chemotherapy.

Keywords: Cervical cancer, Terpenoids, Isomultiflorenol, Autophagy, Cell cycle arrest, Apoptosis