Dodonaea viscosa Jacq. induces cytotoxicity, antiproliferative activity, and cell death in colorectal cancer cells via regulation of caspase 3 and p53.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer diagnosed worldwide and is the second leading cause of cancer-related death due to an insufficiency prognosis and is generally diagnosed in the last step of development. The Peruvian flora has a wide variety of medicinal plants with therapeutic potential in several diseases. Dodonaea viscosa Jacq. is a plant used to treat inflammatory process as well as gastrointestinal diseases. The aim of this study was to examine the cytotoxic, antiproliferative, and cell death-inducing effects of D. viscosa on colorectal cancer cells (SW480 and SW620). The hydroethanolic extract was obtained by maceration at 70% ethanol, the phytochemical constituents were identified by LC-ESI-MS. D. viscosa revealed 57 compounds some of them are: isorhamnetin, kaempferol, quercetin, methyl dodovisate B, hardwickiic acid, viscosol, and dodonic acid. Regarding the antitumoral activity, D. viscosa induced cytotoxic and antiproliferative activity in both SW480 and SW620 cancer cells, accompanied with, important changes in mitochondrial membrane potential, formation of the Sub G0/G1 population and increasing levels of apoptotic biomarkers (caspase 3 and the tumor suppressor protein p53) in the metastatic derivative cell line (SW620), suggesting an intrinsic apoptotic process after the treatment with the hydroethanolic extract of D. viscosa.

Carvacrol: An In Silico Approach of a Candidate Drug on HER2, PI3Kα, mTOR, hER-α, PR, and EGFR Receptors in the Breast Cancer.

Carvacrol is a phenol monoterpene found in aromatic plants specially in Lamiaceae family, which has been evaluated in an experimental model of breast cancer. However, any proposed mechanism based on its antitumor effect has not been reported. In our previous study, carvacrol showed a protective effect on 7,12-dimethylbenz[α]anthracene- (DMBA-) induced breast cancer in female rats. The main objective in this research was to evaluate by using in silico study the carvacrol on HER2, PI3Kα, mTOR, hER-α, PR, and EGFR receptors involved in breast cancer progression by docking analysis, molecular dynamic, and drug-likeness evaluation. A multilevel computational study to evaluate the antitumor potential of carvacrol focusing on the main targets involved in the breast cancer was carried out. The in silico study starts with protein-ligand docking of carvacrol followed by ligand pathway calculations, molecular dynamic simulations, and molecular mechanics energies combined with the Poisson-Boltzmann (MM/PBSA) calculation of the free energy of binding for carvacrol. As result, the in silico study led to the identification of carvacrol with strong binding affinity on mTOR receptor. Additionally, in silico drug-likeness index for carvacrol showed a good predicted therapeutic profile of druggability. Our findings suggest that mTOR signaling pathway could be responsible for its preventive effect in the breast cancer.

TOCOSH FLOUR (Solanum tuberosum L.): A Toxicological Assessment of Traditional Peruvian Fermented Potatoes.

Potato tocosh is a naturally processed potato for nutritional and curative purposes from traditional Peruvian medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the acute and sub-acute toxicity of tocosh flour (TF). For sub-acute toxicity, TF was administered orally to rats daily once a day for 28 days at doses of 1000 mg/kg body weight (BW). Animals were observed for general behaviors, mortality, body weight variations, and histological analysis. At the end of treatment, relative organ weights, histopathology, hematological and biochemical parameters were analyzed. For acute toxicity, TF was administered orally to mice at doses of 2000 and 5000 mg/kg BW at a single dose in both sexes. Body weight, mortality, and clinical signs were observed for 14 days after treatment. The results of acute toxicity showed that the median lethal dose (LD50) value of TF is higher than 2000 g/kg BW but less than 5000 mg/Kg BW in mice. Death and toxicological symptoms were not found during the treatment. For sub-acute toxicity, we found that no-observed-adverse-effect levels (NOAEL) of TF in rats up to 1000 g/kg BW. There were statistically significant differences in body weight, and relative organ weight in the stomach and brain. No differences in hematological and biochemical parameters were observed when compared with the control group. For sub-acute toxicity, histopathological studies revealed minor abnormalities in liver and kidney tissues at doses of 5000 mg/Kg. Based on these results, TF is a traditional Peruvian medicine with high safety at up to 1000 mg/kg BW for 28 days in rats.