Cytotoxicity of luteolin, quercetin, chlorogenic and caffeic acid present in Achyrocline satureioides LAM. (DC) on vero cells

SABINI C.; CARIDDI L.; MENIS CANDELA F; CAMPRA N.; ESCOBAR F.M.; TORRES C.; NUÑEZ MONTOYA S.; COMINI L.; SABINI L.; DALCERO A.

Estancia Grande ? San Luis

Otro; XXXII Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2014

Achyrocline satureioides is a medicinal plant belonging to the Asteraceae family. Popularly, it is known as Marcela del campo‖ and it is widely used as medicinal herb in South America. Several medicinal properties have been attributed to this plant, such as anti-inflammatory, sedative, antioxidant, immunomodulatory and antiviral. Previously, we demonstrated that an aqueous extract of A. satureioides showed antiviral activity against an Alphavirus, Western Equine Encephalitis virus. Also, we determined the presence of flavonoids as luteolin (L), quercetin (Q) and dicaffeoylquinic acids as chlorogenic (CL) and caffeic (C) acid in the extract of A. satureioides. The aim was to determine the cytotoxicity in vitro of luteolin, quercetin, chlorogenic and caffeic acid. The cytotoxic concentration 50% (CC50) was determined by Neutral Red Uptake (NRU) and MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)- 2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) reduction assays. Vero cell monolayers were exposed to increasing concentrations of compounds: Q, CL and C from 5 at 600 μg/mL and L from 5 at 1000μg/mL, and incubated for 48 h at 37ºC. Assays were carriedout in triplicate. Monolayers incubated only with medium were the cellular viability controls. The CC50 values by NRU were >600μg/mL for Q, CL and C, and >1000 μg/mL for L. C was the more toxic, at 600μg/mL it showed 55% of viability in contrast to Q, CL and L which indicated around 85-90% of viability. On the other hand, the mitochondrial test of viability (MTT) showed CC50values of 410μg/mL for C, 690 μg/mL for L and >600μg/mLfor Q and CL. The four compounds showed low toxicity on Vero cells. These results are very relevant to continue in search of antiviral drugs with selectivity of action.