The Cytotoxic Effects Of Novel Persin Analogues on a Breast Cancer Cell Line

Abstract

Roberts et al. (2007) and Butt et al. (2006) previously found that persin, a compound isolated from avocado leaves, can induce apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in mammary epithelial cells of lactating mice in vivo and in certain human breast cancer cell lines in vitro. It has also been found that at higher doses, persin is cardiotoxic in mice and causes necrosis in mammary glands of lactating mammals (Oelrichs, 1995). Therefore, compounds with reduced mammary gland necrosis and cardiotoxicity but with the apoptotic effects of persin on breast cancer cells could be potential chemotherapeutic agents. Six novel analogues of persin have been synthesized to test their effects on MCF-7 breast cancer cells and MCF-10A normal breast epithelial cells. Cells cultured from each cell line were treated with each analogue at varying concentrations to determine potential cytotoxic doses. Cytotoxicity of the compounds was determined by a commercially available Cell Proliferation Assay. Compounds that were significantly cytotoxic were tested for apoptotic activity using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Three compounds were found to be cytotoxic to both cell lines, whereas the others had little to no impact on cell viability.