Planta Med 1998; 64(3): 212-215
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-957411
Papers
Pharmacology
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Anti-Tumor Effects of d-Dicentrine from the Root of Lindera megaphylla

Ray-Ling Huang1 , 2 , Chien-Chih Chen1 , Yu-Lin Huang1 , Jun-Chih Ou1 , Cheng-Po Hu2 , 3 , Chieh-Fu Chen1 , Chungming Chang2 , 3
  • 1National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
  • 2Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Life Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
  • 3Department of Medical Research, Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Further Information

Publication History

1997

1997

Publication Date:
04 January 2007 (online)

Abstract

d-Dicentrine, a naturally occurring aporphine type isoquinoline alkaloid, isolated from the root of Lindera megaphylla Hemsl. (Lauraceae), was evaluated for its potential anti-cancer activity. We found d-dicentrine significantly inhibited the growth of human hepatoma cell line HuH-7 by delaying its doubling time in tissue culture. An in vitro colony forming assay showed that d-dicentrine decreased the colony formation efficiency in both hepatoma cell lines, HuH-7 and MS-G2, used in our study. Biosyntheses of the macromolecules DNA and RNA were also strongly inhibited. An MTT assay in 21 tumor cell lines also revealed that d-dicentrine was most cytotoxic to esophageal carcinoma HCE-6, lymphoma cell lines Molt-4 and CESS, leukemia cell lines HL60 and K562, and hepatoma cell line MS-G2. An in vitro tumor growing assay in the Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) mice showed that intraperitoneal injection of d-dicentrine at the dose of 100 µg twice a week for 4 weeks significantly inhibited the tumor incidence of leukemia cell line K562 in SCID mice. All these data indicated that d-dicentrine has potential anti-tumor applications.