In vitro Antineoplastic Activity of Dye Compounds on Human Glioblastoma Cells

Abstract

Dyes are an important class of natural and synthetic compounds, recently studied as potential anticancer drugs. Among various natural dye molecules, Curcumin was extensively studied in treatment of malignant gliomas, a highly incurable disease. Curcumin was reported to induce cell death in malignant gliomas by induction autophagy and apoptosis. We have previously reported that Helianthin, a synthetic dye compound, also induced apoptotic cell death in high grade glioma cells. In this study we evaluated the antiproliferative and the apoptotic effect of Curcumin and Helianthin on a human low passage glioblastoma cell line. We found that both compounds displayed antiproliferative properties on glioblastoma cells, however, at equimolar concentrations, Helianthin induced more cytotoxic effect than Curcumin. IC50 value is considered a good indicator of drug efficacy. We found that Helianthin required a lower concentration to achieve IC50 (16.9.735 ±14.8 µM) than Curcumin (68.5 ±12.3 µM). We also found that Curcumin and Helianthin treatment induced caspase 3, 8 and 9 activation in glioblastoma cells. This study may lead to a widespread search for dye agents that may represent an untapped source of drugs for cancer treatment.