Background: Parthenolide (PN) has been reported to inhibit proliferation and induces apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells with different mechanisms. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, its relative anticancer activity at lower doses has not been reported in HaCaT immortalized keratinocytes and A375 melanoma cells.
Objective and method: The present study aimed to investigate the relative anticancer effects of PN by analysing its cytotoxicity, apoptosis and cell cycle arresting potentials in HaCaT and A375 cells.
Result: PN was found to be significantly cytotoxic with lower IC50 values of 1.45 µM and 2.9 µM (p<0.05) in HaCaT and A375 cells, respectively with nuclear disruption as evident by DAPI staining. A dose-dependent increase in DNA fragmentation indicated apoptotic cell death. Furthermore, the percentage of cells deposition at S (35.56 to 43.68%) and G0-G1 (27.15 to 56.44%) phases after 24 h of PN treatment, substantiate its cell cycle arresting potentials in HaCaT and A375 cells.
Conclusion: These comparative results provided substantial evidence to conclude the anticancer potential of PN, especially at lower dosages to induce cell death mechanisms in skin epidermal cells.