"Photodynamic activity of anthraquinones isolated from Heterophyllaea pustulata Hook f. (Rubiaceae) on MCF-7c3 breast cancer cells"

LR COMINI, IM FERNANDEZ, NB RUMIE VITTAR, SC NÚÑEZ MONTOYA, JL CABRERA, VA RIVAROLA.

PHYTOMEDICINE

ELSEVIER GMBH

Año: 2011 vol. 18 p. 1093 - 1095

0944-7113

Searching for agents that could be effective in the treatment of cancer, special highlight has focused on the study of numerous plant-derived compounds. We previously demonstrated that anthraquinones (AQs) isolated from a vegetal species: Heterophyllaea pustulata Hook f. (Rubiaceae), such as rubiadin, rubiadin-1-methyl ether, soranjidiol, soranjidiol-1-methyl ether exhibit photosensitizing properties without antecedents as photodynamic agents in malignant cells. In the present study, we investigated the potential role of these AQs as a phototoxic agent against human breast carcinoma using MCF-7c3 cells. All AQs exhibited significant photocytotoxicity on cancer cells at the concentration of 100 µM with 1J/cm2 light dose, resulting soranjidiol-1-methyl ether in complete cell destruction. The observed cellular killing by photoactivated AQs exhibited close relation with singlet oxygen production, except for soranjidiol-1-methyl ether, where cell viability decrease is in relation to uptake by tumor cells.