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Antitumoral Drug Potential of Tryptophan-Betaxanthin and Related Plant Betalains in the Caenorhabditis elegans Tumoral Model

Betalains are plants pigments identified as potent antioxidant molecules, naturally present in foods like beetroot and prickly pears. Although activities described for betalain-containing formulations include cancer prevention and treatment, the use of extracts instead of purified pigments has avoid...

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Autores principales: Henarejos-Escudero, Paula, Hernández-García, Samanta, Guerrero-Rubio, M. Alejandra, García-Carmona, Francisco, Gandía-Herrero, Fernando
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7465535/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32707947
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antiox9080646
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author Henarejos-Escudero, Paula
Hernández-García, Samanta
Guerrero-Rubio, M. Alejandra
García-Carmona, Francisco
Gandía-Herrero, Fernando
author_facet Henarejos-Escudero, Paula
Hernández-García, Samanta
Guerrero-Rubio, M. Alejandra
García-Carmona, Francisco
Gandía-Herrero, Fernando
author_sort Henarejos-Escudero, Paula
collection PubMed
description Betalains are plants pigments identified as potent antioxidant molecules, naturally present in foods like beetroot and prickly pears. Although activities described for betalain-containing formulations include cancer prevention and treatment, the use of extracts instead of purified pigments has avoided the investigation of the real chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic potential of these phytochemicals. Three betalain-rich extracts and six individual pure betalains were used in this work to characterize the activity and to explore possible molecular mechanisms. The animal model Caenorhabditis elegans (tumoral strain JK1466) was used to evaluate the effect of betalains as chemotherapeutics drugs. An objective evaluation method of tumor growth in C. elegans has been developed to assess the possible antitumoral activity of the different treatments. This protocol allowed a fast and reliable screening of possible antitumoral drugs. Among the betalains tested, tryptophan-betaxanthin reduced tumor size by 56.4% and prolonged the animal’s lifespan by 9.3%, indicating high effectiveness and low toxicity. Structure–activity relationships are considered. Assays with mutant strains of C. elegans showed that the mechanism underlying these effects was the modulation of the DAF-16 transcription factor and the insulin signaling pathway. Our results indicate that tryptophan-betaxanthin and related betalains are strong candidates as antitumoral molecules in cancer treatment.
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spelling pubmed-74655352020-09-04 Antitumoral Drug Potential of Tryptophan-Betaxanthin and Related Plant Betalains in the Caenorhabditis elegans Tumoral Model Henarejos-Escudero, Paula Hernández-García, Samanta Guerrero-Rubio, M. Alejandra García-Carmona, Francisco Gandía-Herrero, Fernando Antioxidants (Basel) Article Betalains are plants pigments identified as potent antioxidant molecules, naturally present in foods like beetroot and prickly pears. Although activities described for betalain-containing formulations include cancer prevention and treatment, the use of extracts instead of purified pigments has avoided the investigation of the real chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic potential of these phytochemicals. Three betalain-rich extracts and six individual pure betalains were used in this work to characterize the activity and to explore possible molecular mechanisms. The animal model Caenorhabditis elegans (tumoral strain JK1466) was used to evaluate the effect of betalains as chemotherapeutics drugs. An objective evaluation method of tumor growth in C. elegans has been developed to assess the possible antitumoral activity of the different treatments. This protocol allowed a fast and reliable screening of possible antitumoral drugs. Among the betalains tested, tryptophan-betaxanthin reduced tumor size by 56.4% and prolonged the animal’s lifespan by 9.3%, indicating high effectiveness and low toxicity. Structure–activity relationships are considered. Assays with mutant strains of C. elegans showed that the mechanism underlying these effects was the modulation of the DAF-16 transcription factor and the insulin signaling pathway. Our results indicate that tryptophan-betaxanthin and related betalains are strong candidates as antitumoral molecules in cancer treatment. MDPI 2020-07-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7465535/ /pubmed/32707947 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antiox9080646 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Henarejos-Escudero, Paula
Hernández-García, Samanta
Guerrero-Rubio, M. Alejandra
García-Carmona, Francisco
Gandía-Herrero, Fernando
Antitumoral Drug Potential of Tryptophan-Betaxanthin and Related Plant Betalains in the Caenorhabditis elegans Tumoral Model
title Antitumoral Drug Potential of Tryptophan-Betaxanthin and Related Plant Betalains in the Caenorhabditis elegans Tumoral Model
title_full Antitumoral Drug Potential of Tryptophan-Betaxanthin and Related Plant Betalains in the Caenorhabditis elegans Tumoral Model
title_fullStr Antitumoral Drug Potential of Tryptophan-Betaxanthin and Related Plant Betalains in the Caenorhabditis elegans Tumoral Model
title_full_unstemmed Antitumoral Drug Potential of Tryptophan-Betaxanthin and Related Plant Betalains in the Caenorhabditis elegans Tumoral Model
title_short Antitumoral Drug Potential of Tryptophan-Betaxanthin and Related Plant Betalains in the Caenorhabditis elegans Tumoral Model
title_sort antitumoral drug potential of tryptophan-betaxanthin and related plant betalains in the caenorhabditis elegans tumoral model
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7465535/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32707947
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antiox9080646
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