Short Lecture "Antitumoral potential of sub-fractions obtained from Ulex gallii Planch. in human neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) and glioblastoma (U-87MG and U-373MG) cell lines"

Ulex gallii Planch. (UG) is a thorny bush of the Fabaceae family. In popular medicine, plants belonging to the Ulex genus have been used for decades. Their applications in cancer are versatile, and there are several studies justifying their uses. However, few phytochemical and pharmacological data have been reported for UG. Due to this, it was proposed to carry out a study of its antitumor activity in human neuroblastoma (SH- SY5Y) and glioblastoma (U-87MG and U-373MG) cell lines. UG was extracted with methanol and subsequently partitioned into hexane (UgH), dichloromethane (UgD) and methanol (UgM) extracts. The three extracts were fractionated in Sephadex LH-20, obtaining 19 sub-fractions: UgH1,31-36 and 4, UgD1-8 and UgM1-4. UgD3-8 were selected for significantly reducing the viability of all the tumoral cell lines and for showing low toxicity in the human fibroblast cell line (MRC-5). Annexin-V/7-AAD analysis confirmed that the treatment of SH-SY5Y and U-87MG with the sub-fractions UgD7 and UgD8 involves an apoptotic process. Both fractions showed alteration in the cell cycle regulation. SH-SY5Y cells treated with UgD7 led to increased levels of p53, caspase-3, FAS, caspase-8 and the Y-h2ax. This could be related with the activation of the extrinsic pathway of apoptosis. UgD8 increased the levels of p53 and caspase-3 but not FAS. The same was observed for U-87MG. The chemical composition of UgD7 and UgD8 could justify the effects observed in the studies. The results obtained in U-373MG could imply another process of non- apoptotic cell death.

 

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Publication History

Article published online:
16 November 2023