Full text
| |
| Author(s): |
Juliana Lessa Sacoman
Total Authors: 1
|
| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia |
| Defense date: | 2007-02-26 |
| Examining board members: |
João Ernesto de Carvalho;
Carmen Silvia Passos Lima;
Fátima Aparecida Böttcher Luiz
|
| Advisor: | João Ernesto de Carvalho; Mary Ann Foglio |
| Abstract | |
Plants are used in folk medicine since old times of human history, and improvements in techonology, research, purification techniques, isolation and identification of active principIes have allowed the discovery and development of new molecules as drugs for terapheutics of many diseases, such as cancer. This work aimed the evaluation of the anticancer activity of two Brazilian species, Anacardium humile St. Hil. and Pothomorphe umbellata (L.) Miquel, used in folk medicine. Dichlorometanic (DCE) and ethanolic (ECE) crude extracts obtained from leaves of both species were tested in an in vitro citotoxicity assay against human cancer celllines. As long as P. umbellata's DCE showed the best anticancer activity profile, it was also evaluated in a murine cancer model, the Ehrlich Ascite Tumor (EAT). In this experiment, DCE also demonstrated a dose response relationship anticancer activity; therefore the isolation and identification of the active principIe responsible for that activity became the major focus of this work. As a result, DCE was submitted to many cromatographic procedures which were bioguided by the anticancer assay in vitro. This chromatographic purifications permitted identification of two main fractions with high potency and selectivity: fraction A consitituted by oxalic acid derivatives, and fraction C by steroids and triterpenes. The quantification of apoptosis induction by immuncytochemical analysis were significant for UACC-62, OVCAR-3 and NCI-ADR/ RES celllines treated with fraction A, whereas UACC-62, OVCAR-3 and 786- o cells lines went to apoptosis when exposed to fraction C. A third fraction, denominated fraction B, was rich in 4-nerolidylcathecol, widely knowm for this plant specie, and did not show any significative anticancer activity. These results encouraged following up on studies with P. umbellata, priorizing the identification of active principIes, the determination of anticancer mechanism of action and to prove the anticancer activity in experimental cancer models in vivo (AU) | |