Acta Pharm. 69 (2019) 121-128
Short communication
MARTIN AMBROŽ, MARKÉTA ŠMATOVÁ, MICHAELA ŠADIBOLOVÁ, EVA POSPÍŠILOVÁ,
PAVLÍNA HADRAVSKÁ, MICHAELA KAŠPAROVÁ, VERONIKA HANUŠOVÁ SKARKOVÁ, VĚRA KRÁLOVÁ
and LENKA SKÁLOVÁ
skaloval@faf.cuni.cz
1 Department of Biochemical Sciences
Charles University in Prague
Faculty of Pharmacy, Heyrovského 1203, Hradec Králové,
CZ-500 05, Czech Republic
2 Department of Medical Biology and
Genetics
Charles University in Prague
Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové
Šimkova 870, Hradec Králové,
CZ-500 38, Czech Republic
Accepted July 17, 2018
Published August 29, 2018
The present study is designed to find out if sesquiterpenes, α-humulene (HUM), valencene (VAL), β-caryphyllene-oxide (CAO) and trans-nerolidol (NER), are able to improve the antiproliferative effect of classical cytostatic drugs, 5-fluorouracil (FU) and oxaliplatin (1,2-diaminocyclohexaneoxalato-platinum, OxPt), in colon cancer cell lines Caco-2 and SW-620. In addition, the possible mechanisms of sesquiterpene action are studied. The results show significant ability of HUM and especially of CAO to enhance the antiproliferative effects of FU and OxPt in cancer cell lines Caco-2 and SW-620. On the other hand, VAL and NER are ineffective. The action of CAO could be partly based on its ability to disrupt the mitochondrial membrane potential and to activate initiator caspases, but other mechanisms are probably also involved. Based on these results, CAO seems to have the potential for combination therapy of colon cancers and deserves further study.
Keywords: terpenes,
Caco-2, SW-620, combination therapy