Efeito antitumoral da vitafisalina F e seus derivados : mecanismo e alvo de ação

Abstract

Whitasteroids are steroidal lactones, structurally based on the ergostane skeleton, commonly found in plants of the family Solanaceae. In order to evaluate the antitumor potential of this class of compounds, Withaferin A, isolated from the plant Withania somnifera, and Whithaphysalin F, isolated from the plant Acnistus arborescens, were analyzed in several experimental models in vitro. Several analogues of Whithaphysalin F were generated from chemical reactions of reduction, oxidation and hydroxylation. All whitasteroids analyzed, except for KW-120-112-2 showed potent cytotoxic effect in several tumor cell lines. The cell lines of glioblastoma and neuroblastoma were the two most sensitive to the treatment with these compounds. Moreover, both withaferin A and withaphysalin F showed no cytotoxic effect on normal lung human fibroblast. This cytotoxic activity is related to induction of apoptosis by these compounds, and it appears to be related to induction of heat shock proteins (HSPs), as the most cytotoxic withasteroids increased modulation of this type of proteins. In the analysis of the cell cycle of glioblastoma cells (SF-268), treated with withaferin A and withaphysalin F, we observed an accumulation of cells in G2 / M phase of the cell cycle, which later was shown to occur in mitosis . Both withasteroids, showed to interfere with the polymerization of tubulin subunits into microtubule filaments, which can also be seen in the confocal images where all the microtubules are disorganized. The effect on cell cycle of normal cells (WI-38), showed another possible effect of withasteroids, where the effect observed was the accumulation of cells in G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. Then, this effect also was observed in tumor cells, indicating that these drugs can act on several molecular targets depending on cell type and environment where they meet. Thus, it can be concluded that the withaphysalin F and other withasteroidsas well can be considered as a new class of potent antitumor compounds.