On the chemopreventive and antineoplastic effects of guarana, Paullinia cupana Mart var. sorbilis, in in vivo and in vitro experimental models

Author(s)

Heidge Fukumasu

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ/SBD)
• Defense date: 2008-10-07

Examining board members

Maria Lucia Zaidan Dagli; Roger Chammas; Silvana Lima Górniak; Fernando Salvador Moreno; Frederico Azevedo da Costa Pinto

• Advisor: Maria Lucia Zaidan Dagli

Abstract

Cancer is the second biggest cause of deaths in Brazil, only behind of cardiac diseases. As a result, it is evident that great resources for research will be directed towards the discovery of new options to eradicate this disease. Among these options, cancer chemoprevention has calling for attention since the huge advances in the knowledge of carcinogenesis and development of new drugs did not decrease statistical data on mortality due to cancer. In addition, it must be considered that in Brazil, cancer therapy is not available for all given that it is too expensive. Therefore, cancer chemoprevention with dietary factors or from medicinal plants has got to be treasured. Following these lines, the aim of this work was to evaluate the chemopreventive and antineoplastic effects of a Brazilian plant, Paullinia cupana Mart var. sorbilis, most known as guarana. It was used several experiments in mice and cell culture essays as: protection against DEN-induced DNA damage; NNK-induced lung carcinogenesis; Ehrlich Ascitic Tumor; metastasis of B16/f10 melanoma cells; and cell culture of a tumorigenic and a non-tumorigenic cell lines. Additionally, it was characterized the role of Connexin43 in the NNK-induced lung carcinogenesis and the effects of guarana on the CAR receptor before and after the administration of TCPOBOP. We note a chemopreventive or antineoplastic effect of guarana depending on the model employed and showed that the mode of action responsible for these effects was reduced cell proliferation. Also, the lung tumors of guarana-treated animals were smaller, less aggressive, with decreased cell proliferation and CREB activation. On the other hand, we observed that Connexin43 have an important role on NNK-induced lung carcinogenesis because it may act as a tumor suppressor and in advanced stages as an oncogene. The effects of guarana on the CAR activation were characterized and we showed that guarana induces CAR mRNA expression, altering the levels of its transcripts as CYP2B10 and CYP3A11. We also examined the effects of guarana extracts on a lung tumor cell culture (E9 cells) and demonstrated the same antiproliferative effect observed previously, by decreased PCNA and Connexin43 proteins in a dose-dependent manner along with an increase in CAR protein. At last we hypothesized a mechanism of action for guarana effects basing in our findings. We concluded that guarana presents substances that have antitumoral effects in mice, enclosing a chemopreventive or antineoplastic effect depending on the model studied. (AU)