Antiproliferative sesquiterpene lactones from Ambrosia artemisiifolia L

Ambrosia artemisiifolia is a quickly spreading invasive species in Europe. This species has not been used extensively in folk medicine although it contains sesquiterpene lactones, which are characterized with remarkable bioactivities. The aim of our work was to isolate and identify sesquiterpene lactones from A. artemisiifolia and to study their potential antiproliferative effects.

We isolated a new seco-psilostachyinolide derivative, 1,10-dihydro-1′-noraltamisin, and seven known compounds from the plant by different chromatographic methods. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR, HR-MS spectroscopy. The cytotoxic and antiproliferative effects of the isolated compounds were assayed on human colonic adenocarcinoma cell lines and human embryonal lung fibroblast cell line using MTT assay. The selectivity of the effect was calculated toward the normal cell line. Drug interactions with doxorubicin was studied on multidrug resistant Colo 320 cells.

Acetoxydihydrodamsin was the most cytotoxic on sensitive (Colo205) cells. 1′-noraltamisin and psilostachyin exerted significant antiproliferative effects on the multidrug resistant Colo320 cell line and had moderate selectivity against human embryonal lung fibroblast cell line. However, none of the isolated compounds showed inhibitory activity on ABCB1 efflux pump (P-glycoprotein), nor on the bacterial efflux pumps.

Publication History

Article published online:
12 December 2022