The anticancer activity of two glycosides from the leaves of Leea aequata L.

Abstract

Two compounds (7-O-methylmearnsitrin (7-OM) and roseoside A (RA) were identified and characterized from the leaves of Leea aequata (L. aequata) L. The cytotoxicity of 7-OM and RA on HeLa cells was performed using MTT. The 7-OM and RA showed significant inhibition of HeLa cell proliferation with an IC₅₀ of 22 and 20 µg/mL, respectively when compared with the standard vincristin sulphate (VS) (IC₅₀ of 15 µg/mL). Moreover, the 7-OM and RA significantly inhibit other cancer cells (HEK-293, H228, and H3122) when compared with the VS and the cytotoxic activity of the compounds might show through the induction of apoptosis. Strikingly, annexin-V and PI signals could barely be detected in control cells, while strong fluorescence densities were observed in response to treatment indicating that these compounds have capacity to induce HeLa cell apoptosis. Our results suggest that the anticancer activity of 7-OM and RA was due to the induction of apoptosis.

Keywords:

• 7-O-methylmearnsitrin
• roseoside A
• cancer cell lines
• cytotoxicity
• apoptosis

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the National Herbarium, Dhaka, Bangladesh for identification of the plant. The authors also want to give thank School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Medical, Pharmaceutical, and Health Sciences, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan for purifying the compounds and taking ¹H and ¹³C-NMR data as well as mass data. The authors want to give thank JASSO for giving follow up research grant at JAIST, Japan.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors declare that they have no fund for this study.