Cytotoxicity of epunctanone and four other phytochemicals isolated from the medicinal plants Garcinia epunctata and Ptycholobium contortum towards multi-factorial drug resistant cancer cells.

Abstract Introduction Resistance of cancer cells is a serious impediment to chemotherapy and several phytochemicals are active against multi-drug resistant (MDR) phenotypes. The cytotoxicity of five naturally occurring compounds: betulin (1), mundulea lactone (2), seputhecarpan A (3), seputheisoflavone (4) and epunctanone (5) was evaluated on a panel of 9 cancer cell lines including various sensitive and drug-resistant cell lines. The modes of action of compound 5 were further investigated. Methods The resazurin reduction assay was used to evaluate cytotoxicity of samples and ferroptotic cell death induced by compound 5; caspase-Glo assay was used to detect the activation of caspases in CCR…