Affiliations 

  • 1 Medical Sciences 1, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, 55100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. noraziahnordin@usim.edu.my
  • 2 Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 4 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Apoptosis, 2018 02;23(2):152-169.
PMID: 29430581 DOI: 10.1007/s10495-018-1447-x

Abstract

Plagioneurin B belongs to acetogenin group has well-established class of compounds. Acetogenin group has attracted worldwide attention in the past few years due their biological abilities as inhibitors for several types of tumour cells. Plagioneurin B was isolated via conventional chromatography and tested for thorough mechanistic apoptosis activity on human ovarian cancer cells (CAOV-3). Its structure was also docked at several possible targets using Autodock tools software. Our findings showed that plagioneurin B successfully inhibits the growth of CAOV-3 cells at IC50 of 0.62 µM. The existence of apoptotic bodies, cell membrane blebbing and chromatin condensation indicated the hallmark of apoptosis. Increase of Annexin V-FITC bound to phosphatidylserine confirmed the apoptosis induction in the cells. The apoptosis event was triggered through the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways via activation of caspases 8 and 9, respectively. Stimulation of caspase 3 and the presence of DNA ladder suggested downstream apoptotic signalling were initiated. Further confirmation of apoptosis was conducted at the molecular levels where up-regulation in Bax, as well as down-regulation of Bcl-2, Hsp-70 and survivin were observed. Plagioneurin B was also seen to arrest CAOV-3 cells cycle at the G2/M phase. Docking simulation of plagioneurin B with CD95 demonstrated that the high binding affinity and hydrogen bonds formation may explain the capability of plagioneurin B to trigger apoptosis. This study is therefore importance in finding the effective compound that may offer an alternative drug for ovarian cancer treatment.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.