Estudo da atividade anticâncer da marinobufagenina, um bufadienolídeo extraído de anfíbios da espécie Rhinella marina

Abstract

Cancer is a complex genetic disease, considered one of the leading causes of death in the world. The use of substances derived from natural products has grown over the years and is an important source for the therapeutic arsenal. Bufadienolides, a group of cardioactive steroids with a 24 carbon structures are commonly found in glands of toads from Bufonidae family. These molecules a have wide range of biological activities, including anti-cancer effects. Bufadienolides have shown anti-proliferative effect on various human cancer cell lines by inducing death and cell cycle arrest. Marinobufagenin, a bufodienolide extracted from Rhinella marina toad especies was chosen to determine its standard cytotoxic and mechanism of action. Despite showing high cytotoxicity in human tumor cells, the sample showed no cytotoxicity to murine strains. In vitro experiments were performed using the PC3 prostate adenocarcinoma lineage. Cells were incubated with different concentrations of marinobufagenin (0.37, 0.75 and 1.5 mM) for 24 hours. The viability of PC3 cells was evaluated by flow cytometry, which showed that the number of cells reduced when incubated with the lowest concentration (0.37 mM) tested. However, no reduction in the percentage of cells with intact membranes was seen. The analysis of phosphatidylserine externalization by flow cytometry also revealed the increase of apoptotic cells at concentrations 0.75 and 1.5 uM. The flow citometry analysis of the nuclear contents, showed the accumulation of cells in G2 / M phase in all tested concentrations. Marinobufagenin did not damage the DNA in either PC3 or PBMC. In addiction, morphological changes were observed, including cytoplasmic shrinkage and perinuclear halo formation. Moreover, modifications on the pattern of cells adesion were also observed in cells treated with the bufadienolide. Despite lack of further studies to confirm its anticancer mechanisms, morphological changes occurred, the cycle-specific behavior and the lack of genotoxicity of Marinobufagenina make it an interesting molecule in the search for new drugs with antitumor potential.