Safranal, a natural cyclical terpenic aldehyde from Crocus sativus, induced toxic effects on human gastric cancer cells
Safranal, a natural cyclical terpenic aldehyde from Crocus sativus, induced toxic effects on human gastric cancer cells
Nazanin Shadanpour,1Fatemeh B. Rassouli,2Parastoo Azadbeigie,3Farhang Haddad,4,*
1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran 2. Novel Diagnostics and Therapeutics Research Group, Institute of Biotechnology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Introduction: Saffron is spice derived from the dried red-dark stigmas of Crocus sativus, and safranal (C10H14O) is one of its major constituents. As a natural cyclical terpenic aldehyde, safranal has several pharmaceutical activities such as anti-oxidative, neuroprotective and anti-cancer effects. Cytotoxic effects of safranal against leukemia, prostate, cervix, lung and hepatocellular carcinomas were mediated through various mechanism including mitochondrial dysfunction and DNA fragmentation. Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the world, while more than 50% of cases occur in the Eastern Asia. Although the incidence and mortality rates are slowly declining in many countries, gastric cancer still remains a significant public health problem. The present study was designed to assess toxicity of safranal on human gastric cancer cells.
Methods: To determine cytotoxicity of safranal, MKN-45 cells (a human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line) were treated with 1.6 mM and 3.2 mM of safranal. After 24, 48, 72, 96 hours, cell viability was determined by alamarBlue assay as a colorimetric method. In addition, viability of HFF-3 cells (human fibroblasts) were also evaluated upon treatment with the same concentrations of safranal.
Results: Assessment of MKN-45 cell viability after treatment with safranal revealed that this agent induced toxicity in a dose-dependent manner. Our results showed that viability of MKN-45 cells after 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours treatment with 1.6 mM safranal were as 100%, 97.4%, 89% and 64.85%, respectively. Moreover, MKN-45 cell viability were determined to be 95%, 91.7%, 79% and 45.29% after 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours treatment with 3.2 mM safranal, respectively. In addition, safranal induced toxic effects on normal cells as well, since 81% and 61.2% of HFF-3 cells were alive upon 72 hour treatment with 1.6 mM and 3.2 mM safranal, respectively.
Conclusion: Taken together, our findings indicated toxic effects of safranal on human gastric adenocarcinoma cells and fibroblasts. More research must be done to deeply understand the mechanism of safranal toxic action.