Investigating effects of galbanic acid on the viability of LoVo colon carcinoma cells

Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks among the highest causes of cancer related deaths in both men and women worldwide. Due to poor prognosis of CRC and inefficiency of current treatments, the search for new and more effective therapies is ongoing. Galbanic acid, C۲۴H۳۰O۵, is a natural product belonging to the class sesquiterpene coumarins with a wide range of pharmaceutical activities such as antiviral, anticoagulant, anticancer and cancer chemopreventive effects. In present study, cytotoxic effects of galbanic acid was assessed on LoVo cells as a human colon cancer cell line. Materials and methods: Galbanic acid was isolated and characterized from the roots of Ferula szowitsiana DC., a plant of Apiaceae family. LoVo cells, obtained from Pasteur Institute (Tehran, Iran), were grown in RPMI۱۶۴۰ supplemented with ۱۰% fetal bovine serum and incubated at ۳۷°C in the presence of ۵% CO۲. For viability assessment, cells were seeded in ۹۶ well plates and treated with increasing concentrations of galbanic acid (۲۰, ۴۰ and ۸۰ μM) for ۳ consecutive days. Afterwards, alamarBlue was added to each well and upon ۲ h incubation in the dark at ۳۷°C, optical density was measured by a plate reader at ۶۰۰ nm. To calculate the percentage of cell viability, cells treated with ۰.۴% DMSO were considered as control. Assessment of cell viability indicated that ۲۰ μM galbanic acid did not induce toxic effects even after ۳ days. However, upon ۲۴, ۴۸ and ۷۲ h treatment with ۴۰ μM galbanic acid, viability of cells was as ۹۸%, ۸۹% and ۹۵%, respectively. More considerably, cell viability was reduced down to ۸۱%, ۶۸% and ۷۹% upon ۲۴, ۴۸ and ۷۲ h treatment with ۸۰ μM galbanic acid, respectively. In conclusion, our findings indicated that galbanic acid induced its effects in a time and dose dependent manner, and that concentrations with low toxicity could be used in future to affect migration/metastasis ability of human CRC cells.

Keywords:

Colorectal cancer , Galbanic acid , Viability assessment