Avaliação da atividade citotóxica e indução de apoptose em linhagem de câncer colorretal tratada com piplartina

Abstract

Piplartine or piperlongumine is an amide isolated from plants of the genus Piper, from which the peppers is obtained. Plants of this genus are distributed all over the world, and have been used medicinally in different cultures for many years. From the isolated compounds found in these species, piperlongumine is the most outstanding, showing different biological activities and promising anticancer properties. Acquired resistance to conventional treatment is very common in colorectal cancer, in most cases due to loss of function in apoptotic methabolism and cell cycle protein regulation. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the ability of piperlongumine to induce cell death in HCT 116 colorectal carcinoma cell line. HCT 116 wild-type and lines deficient in Bax, p21 and p53 were treated with different concentrations of piperlongumine, as well as the non-tumor cell line Hek-293. A significant reduction in the cell viability of HCT 116 cells was observed, independent from Bax, p21 and p53 status. The morphological alterations from apoptosis were evidenced by Giemsa staining, scanning electron microscopy and acridine orange and ethidium bromide staining. To confirm apoptosis induction, Annexin-PI assay was performed, which evidentiate an increasing percentage of apoptotic cells after PPLGM treatment, with increasing concentrations related with higher percentage of late apoptosis stage and small increase of necrotic cells number. Cell cycle analysis showed altered distribution in both proficient and deficient cells after PPLGM treatment. In this assay, the most expressive result was the increase of Sub-G0/G1 cells phase, which is related to decrease DNA content due to fragmentation and apoptosis induction. To evaluate direct interaction of PPLGM with DNA, plasmidial DNA assays were performed. In this trials, there were no direct interaction of PPLGM with DNA observed, evidencing the indirect action of PPLGM through the increase of reactive oxygen species. The data presented here suggest that PPLGM should be a promising molecule in colorectal cancer therapy