Avaliação do potencial anticâncer in vitro de óleos essenciais de plantas do gênero Eugenia

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most causes of death in the world. The research of natural products is strategy to develop anticancer agents. The aim this research was to identify chemical components, to investigate the anticancer potential in vitro and genotoxicity of Eugenia genus´s essential oil. For this, were used the cytotoxicity assay of Alamar blue and the hemolytic potential in erythrocytes of mice, as initial screening for selection of samples with cytotoxic potential, from the determination of the samples IC50. After the samples selection, we attemped to evaluate anticancer effect of the essential oil and its genotoxicity. Nine essential oils were tested, in a single concentration (50 μg/mL) which only two- Eugenia cuspidifolia (1) e Eugenia tapacumensis (3)- were selected for later tests. The IC50, in 72 hours, obtained to these samples varied between 4,69 to 24,35 μg/mL and 6,22 to 26,17 μg/mL, respectively, among tumor cell lines. For non-tumor cell line, in 72 hours, the values for the IC50 were 25,51 μg/mL to E. cuspidifolia and 36,12 μg/mL to E. tapacumensis besides they didn´t cause hemolysis to mice erythrocytes. The species E. cuspidifolia and E. tapacumensis were more active to colorectal line (HCT 116) and ovary (ES-2), and the HCT 116 line was chosen to be used for later tests, because it´s one of the most frequent kind of cancer in diagnostics and in deaths worldwide at a world level . The chemical constitution of E. cuspidifolia and E. tapacumensis essential oils was investigated through gas chromatography. A total 26 constituents were identified for both samples. The majority components were caryophyllene oxide, α-copaene, hepoxid of humulene II and cis-nerolidol. The essential oils in concentrations 7,5, 15 and 30 μg/mL, were tested in the clonogenic assay and they significantly reduced the number of colonies (p<0,05), in the 7,5 and 15 μg/mL concentrations, when compared with DMSO (0,2%). In the wound-healing assay, 24 and 48 hours, the essential oils reduced the migration in vitro (p<0,05) only on the concentration 30 μg/mL, at 48h. The inhibitor potential of metalloproteinase MMP-2 and MMP-9 was evaluated through of zymography method. In the results, the better inhibition effect was from the E. tapacumensis essential oil, that reduced the enzymatic activity (p<0,05) in the concentrations 15 and 30 μg/mL, in both treatments times (24 and 48h). Genotoxicity was evaluated by comet assay, using two versions, alkaline pH, which detects any damage caused to DNA, and neutral pH, specific to double-stranded breaks in DNA. Through damage index analisis, the results in alkaline pH assay were similar to the neutral pH. Only E. tapacumensis (30 μg/mL) caused damage DNA (p<0,05) in the alkaline version. At the neutral pH version, all concentrations tested (p<0,05) caused DNA damage. Thus, is concluded that E. cuspidifolia and E. tapacumensis essential oils are cytotoxic in tumor cell lines, and they have anticancer potencial in HCT 116 cell line acting as cytotoxic and cytostatic depending on the time and the tested concentration. Only E. tapacumensis is genotoxic, in non-tumor cell line, however more specific studies are needed to determine whether this genotoxicity is reversible or if the mechanism of cytotoxic action of essential oil is related to the cell DNA damage.