Avaliação do potencial antitumoral da espécie Casearia sylvestris

Abstract

Cancer has emerged as a major cause of morbidity and mortality in recent times. According the report from the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 9 million deaths with 5 million new cases of cancer for wear. Unfortunately, many cases are still diagnosed at advanced stages when treatment options are only palliative. Many medications routinely used in chemotherapy are derived from natural products, and Brazil has a wide diversity of plants, which are useful as a source of research for the identification of new compounds with antitumor activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-tumor potential of nine species of plants collected in the Atlantic Forest in the southern region of Minas Gerais, which are: Duguetia lanceolata (leaves), Trichilia emarginata (leaves), Miconia willdenoii (leaves), Allophylus racemosus (leaves and branches), Metrodorea stipularis (leaves), Mollinedia widgrenii (leaves) and Casearia arborea (leaves), Acacia polyphylla (leaves), Casearia sylvestris (leaves). The results showed that the extract obtained from Casearia sylvestris leaves were potentially active against five different strains derived from human cancer cells: A 549 (lung adenocarcinoma), MCF 7 (breast carcinoma), HepG2 (hepatocellular carcinoma), U251 MG (glioblastoma) HT 144 (melanoma). Thus, the crude extract of this species was fractionated by liquid-liquid extraction in order to select the fractions enriched with bioactive substances. The ethyl acetate fraction (medium polarity substance) showed a higher antitumor activity and was selected for isolation for the isolation of substances with antitumor potential. After column chromatography, liquid chromatography has been possible to isolate the casearin D. The same was subjected to biological tests and have found that antitumor potential on the lines of hepatocellular carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma.