ABSTRACT
Doctoral School of Pharmacological Sciences, course in Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics. Department of Pharmacology and Anaesthesiology, University of Padova, Italy
Schisandra chinensishas been considered an useful material in the regulation of various pathological conditions over the last several decades in Korea, China and Japan. In traditional Oriental medicine the fruit of S. chinensis has been used to treat a variety of diseases [1]. The major bioactive constituents of Schisandra berry are lignans belonging to the dibenzocyclooctadiene type. More than 40 lignans have been isolated from this fruit intensively studied from pharmacological and phytochemical points of view [2]. Pharmacological studies of lignans isolated from Schisandra berry have revealed anti-cancer, hepatoprotective, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities [3].
Many cancer chemotherapeutic agents have structures derived from natural products. Etoposide and teniposide are clinically used and belong to the chemical family of lignans related to podophyllotoxin [4]. Thus, the evaluation of lignans for their anticancer properties can still play an important role in the development of new antitumor drugs.
The work focused on molecular mechanisms underlying antiproliferative effects of (+)-deoxyschisandrin and (-)-gomisin N, the major bioactive constituents of Schisandra chinensis fruits, against human colon (LoVo) and ovarian (2008) adenocarcinoma cell lines.
The results showed that these lignans inhibited cell growth in a dose- and time-dependent manner on both cell lines, expecially after 72 hours of treatment, causing apoptosis. Yet mitochondrial-mediated pathway seemed to be not involved in apoptotic stimuli. This result suggests that programmed cell death could be induced by the extrinsic pathway and this has to be better investigated. Both compounds showed the capability to alter cell cycle progression, inducing G2/M phase cell growth arrest correlated with tubulin polymerization on colon cancer cell line.
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4) Gordaliza M et al. (2000) - Curr Pharm Design 6: 1811-39