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ABSTRACT
Pulverized immature fruits of Annona montana M. are commonly used for biomedical applications, especially in the treatment of dysentery. The aim of this study was to investigate whether hexane, ethyl acetate or methanol extracts of A. montana M. can be cytotoxic to human tumor cells or exhibit genotoxic effects on normal human cells. The organic extracts were shown to inhibit survival of tumor cells originating from human astrocytoma, breast, colon, lung and prostate cancers. Furthermore, they were found to induce DNA damage in normal human lymphocytes, as shown by comet assay. The genotoxic effects observed suggest that traditional folk medicines prepared from extracts of the immature fruit of A. montana should be used with caution.
Acknowledgements
E.A.R. thanks Prometeo Project of the Secretaria Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Invovacción (SENESCYT) of the Republic of Ecuador.
N.B.M. acknowledges the Programa de Doctorado en C. Biomédicas UNAM-Mexico and the SENESCYT-Ecuador, as well as UTPL (PROY_CBCM_0011) for financial support of these studies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Natalia Bailon-Moscoso obtained his bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Pharmacy from Universidad de Cuenca (Cuenca, Ecuador) in 2007, and her Ph.D. degree in science from Univesidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (Ciudad de México, México) in 2015. Her research interest includes cancer biology, tumor protein p53 family members, signal transduction, natural products and genotoxic.
Juan Carlos Romero Benavides obtained his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Escuela Politécnica Nacional (Quito, Ecuador) in 2002, and his Ph.D. degree in science from Univesidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (Ciudad de México, México) in 2015. His research interest includes isolation, characterization, identification and chemical transformations of secondary metabolites of plants with biological activity: anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and anti-parasitic.
María Isabel Ramirez Orellana earned her degree at the Technical University of Loja, Ecuador in 2008, and her master's degree at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain, 2013). Her research interests include the development of cytotoxic and genotoxic assays to evaluate natural extracts.
Karla Ojeda earned her degree at the Technical University of Loja, Ecuador in 2010. Her research interests include the development cytotoxic assays to evaluate natural extracts and pharmacology.
Glenda Granda earned her degree at the Technical University of Loja, Ecuador in 2010. Her research interests include the development genotoxic assays to evaluate natural extracts and pharmacology.
Edward A. Ratoviski has received his M.Sc degree in Biochemistry from the Leningrad State University (Leningrad, Russia) and his PhD degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia). His research interests include: cancer biology, chemo therapeutic resistance, tumor protein p53 family members, signal transduction, natural products, microRNAs, cell death, autophagy, epigenetics.
Patricia Ostrosky-Wegman obtained her bachelor's degree in Biology from the UNAM (Mexican National Autonomous University ) in 1971, her MSc in Biomedical Science ( Genetics) from Tel Aviv University in 1978 and her Ph.D in Biomedical Science ( Pharmacology) from UNAM in 1986. Her research interest includes genetic toxicology and new antineoplasic drugs.
