Swerchirin exerts anticancer activity on SKOV3 human ovarian cancer cells via induction of mitochondrial apoptosis, G2/M cell cycle arrest and inhibition of Raf/MEK/ERK cascade.

PURPOSE: Ovarian cancer is one of the major causes of death in females around the world. There are several drug regimens available for this type of cancer, but despite initial response to chemotherapy, the disease consistently relapses, showing that there is a need to find more efficient and novel anticancer agents. Plant-derived natural products may prove beneficial in this case due to their lower cytotoxicity. In the present study we evaluated the anticancer activity of swerchirin against human SKOV3 ovarian cancer cell line.

METHODS: Cell viability was evaluated by MTT colorimetric assay. Effects on the cell cycle phase distribution as well as mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) were evaluated by flow cytometry. Effects on cell apoptosis were evaluated by annexin-V/propidium iodide (PI) staining assay while effects on apoptosis related protein expressions were evaluated by Western blot assay.

RESULTS: The results indicated that swerchirin reduced the cell viability in a dose-dependent manner and exhibited an IC50 of 20 μM at 48 hrs of incubation. The anticancer activity of swerchirin was found to be due mitochondrial apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest. This anticancer activity of swerchirin against SKOV3 was found to be concentrationdependent and increased with increase in the concentration of swerchirin. Additionally, swerchirin inhibited the expression of phospho-MEK and phospho-ERK in a dose-dependent manner.

CONCLUSION: In summary, we conclude that swerchirin significantly increased SKOV3 cell death due to cell cycle arrest, loss of MMP, apoptosis and inhibition of Raf/MEK/ ERK pathway.