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

SABINI MC; CARIDDI LN; MENIS CANDELA F; CAMPRA NA; ESCOBAR FM; COMINI L; TORRES C; NUÑEZ MONTOYA S; SABINI LI; DALCERO A

Congreso; XXXII Reunión Científica Anual Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2014

Achyrocline satureioides is a medicinal plant belongs to 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 1000 µg/mL, and incubated for 48 h at 37ºC. Assays were carried out in triplicate. Monolayers incubated only with medium were the cellular viability controls. The CC50 values by NRU were >600 µg/mL for Q, CL and C, and >1000 µg/mL for L. C was the more toxic, at 600 µg/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 CC50 values of 410 µg/mL for C, 690 µg/mL for L and >600 µg/mL for 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.