No abstract

The results of in vitro studies demonstrate cytotoxic activity alantolactone and isoalantolactone, presented in the elecampane plant (Inula helenium) of the natural sesquiterpene lactones. These compounds show toxicity against human cancer cell lines: MS, A549, HCT116, MCF7, RD and K562. The involvement of the p53 signaling pathway in the death of tumor cells, as well as the contribution of reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation during cell death, was studied.

No abstract

Sesquiterpene lactones (SL) are widely distributed in nature (formed biosynthetically in plants from farnesyl pyrophosphate) and are a structurally diverse class of terpenoids with 15 carbon atoms in the skeleton and, in addition to the lactone cycle, can contain various functional groups. Some of them exhibit biological activity both in a rather wide range and in relation to a specific target. An increase in the number of undescribed natural plant compounds of this class, as well as detection in various plant species, opens up new possibilities for their use for the purposes of medical chemistry, phytochemistry, pharmacognosy, chemotaxonomy, and related fields. Using the example of SL of the eudesmane structural type found in plants of the genus Inula, this review attempts to show the relevance of studies of such compounds that investigate the mechanism of action on various biological models, including the goal of developing new effective antitumor agents.

An the present study we evaluated the effect of natural sesquiterpene lactones of plants of the genus Inula on the cells of neuroblastoma SK-N-MC under conditions of toxic stress induced by H2O2 and glutamate. Lactones increased cell survival under these conditions and the leader compounds were identified in this series. A putative mechanism for the protective action of lactones on cells under condition toxic stress has been proposed.