Cytotoxic Effect and NF-κB Inhibition of Fractions from Lantana ukambensis (Verbenacea)

Despite the efforts of scientific research, cancer remains one of the dreaded diseases in the world. Resistance to chemotherapy has forced researchers to investigate medicinal plants in the search for new anticancer drugs. Our project is part of this dynamic by studying Lantana ukambensis, plant used in Burkina' traditional medicine for the treatment of old wounds. The objective of our study was to isolate anticancer molecules from this plant using bioguided fractionation method and to study their pharmacological properties of interest for cancer treatment. Maceration of shred leaves of L. ukambensis was done and the extract was fractionated by HPLC. The isolated compounds were then tested on K562 cancer cells and healthy cells PBMC using trypan blue test to evaluate the selectivity of their toxicity. Finally inhibition of NF-κB pathway was tested to find a probable anti-inflammatory effect of these molecules. L. ukambensis exhibits a strong antiproliferative effect against K562 cells. Two HPLC fractions (F10 and F12) were found to be cytotoxic against K562 at 5 µg/mL. Four sub-fractions were isolated from F10 and two others from F12. The cytotoxic effect of isolated sub-fractions against healthy cells (PBMC) is found to be low, compared to that on cancer cells (K562), meaning that there is specificity in the toxicity of these compounds. The NF-κB inhibition assay showed that the isolated compounds exhibit high inhibition effect on NF-κB pathway except compound F10C that showed a moderate activity. Phytochemical analyses are ongoing in order to determine the chemical structure of each isolated compounds.

Keywords: Lantana ukambensis, cytotoxicity, NF-κB, Cancer.