Castanea sativa Mill. Shells Aqueous Extract Exhibits Anticancer Properties Inducing Cytotoxic and Pro-Apoptotic Effects
by
Nunzio Antonio Cacciola 1,2,†
, Giuseppe Squillaci 1,3,†, Mariella D’Apolito 1, Orsolina Petillo 1, Francesco Veraldi 1, Francesco La Cara 1, Gianfranco Peluso 1, Sabrina Margarucci 1,*,‡ and Alessandra Morana 1,*,‡
Nunzio Antonio Cacciola 1,2,†, Giuseppe Squillaci 1,3,†, Mariella D’Apolito 1, Orsolina Petillo 1, Francesco Veraldi 1, Francesco La Cara 1, Gianfranco Peluso 1, Sabrina Margarucci 1,*,‡ and Alessandra Morana 1,*,‡
1
Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems (IRET), National Research Council of Italy, (CNR), Via P. Castellino 111, 80131 Naples, Italy
2
Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Productions, University of Naples - Federico II, Via F. Delpino 1, 80137 Naples, Italy
3
Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Santa Maria di Costantinopoli 16, 80138 Naples, Italy
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this study as co-first authors.
‡
These authors contributed equally to this study as co-last authors.
Academic Editor: Francesca Borrelli
Molecules 2019, 24(18), 3401; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24183401
Received: 30 July 2019 / Revised: 10 September 2019 / Accepted: 17 September 2019 / Published: 19 September 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Herbal Medicines–Unraveling Their Molecular Mechanism)
In this study, chestnut shells (CS) were used in order to obtain bioactive compounds through different extraction procedures. The aqueous extracts were chemically characterized. The highest extraction yield and total phenolic content was obtained by conventional liquid extraction (CLE). Gallic and protocatechuic acids were the main simple phenols in the extract, with 86.97 and 11.20 mg/g chestnut shells dry extract (CSDE), respectively. Six tumor cell lines (DU 145, PC-3, LNCaP, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and HepG2) and one normal prostate epithelial cell line (PNT2) were exposed to increasing concentration of CSDE (1–100 µg/mL) for 24 h, and cell viability was evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide MTT assay. A reduced rate in cell viability was observed in DU 145, PC-3, LNCaP, and MCF-7 cells, while viability of the other assessed cells was not affected, except for PNT2 cells at a concentration of 100 μg/mL. Furthermore, CSDE—at concentrations of 55.5 and 100 µg/mL—lead to a significant increase of apoptotic cells in DU 145 cells of 28.2% and 61%, respectively. In conclusion, these outcomes suggested that CS might be used for the extraction of several polyphenols that may represent good candidates for alternative therapies or in combination with current chemotherapeutics.
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Keywords:
chestnut shells; polyphenols; bioactive compounds; apoptosis; cytotoxicity; human cell lines
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Cacciola, N.A.; Squillaci, G.; D’Apolito, M.; Petillo, O.; Veraldi, F.; La Cara, F.; Peluso, G.; Margarucci, S.; Morana, A. Castanea sativa Mill. Shells Aqueous Extract Exhibits Anticancer Properties Inducing Cytotoxic and Pro-Apoptotic Effects. Molecules 2019, 24, 3401.
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