Insights into HPLC-MS/MS Analysis, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activity of Astragalus fruticosus against Different Types of Cancer Cell Lines

Mohamed Fayez Dekinash; Tarek M Okda; Ehab Kotb Elmahallawy; Fathy Kandil El-Fiky; Gamal Abd El Hay Omran; Emil Svajdlenka; Naief Dahran; Manal F El-Khadragy; Wafa A Al-Megrin; El Moataz Bellah Ali El Naggar

doi:10.3390/ph15111406

Insights into HPLC-MS/MS Analysis, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activity of Astragalus fruticosus against Different Types of Cancer Cell Lines

Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2022 Nov 14;15(11):1406. doi: 10.3390/ph15111406.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22511, Egypt.
² Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22511, Egypt.
³ Department of Zoonoses, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Sohag University, Sohag 82524, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Delta University for Science and Technology, Mansoura 35511, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Natural Drugs, Faculty of Pharmacy, Masaryk University, 60300 Brno, Czech Republic.
⁶ Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jeddah, Jeddah 21959, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Plants from the genus Astragalus are gaining attention for their pharmacological importance. However, the information available regarding the HPLC-MS/MS chemical profile of A. fruticosus is inadequate. In this study, we performed HPLC-MS/MS analysis using electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). We tentatively identified 11 compounds in the A. fruticosus methanolic extract, including five flavonoidal and six saponin glycosides. The extract showed moderate antioxidant activity with 21.05% reduction in DPPH UV absorption. The preliminary cytotoxic screening against seven human cancer cell lines using 100 μg/mL extract showed prominent cytotoxic potential against colorectal cancer HCT-116 with 3.368% cell viability. It also showed moderate cytotoxic potential against prostate (DU-145), ovarian (SKOV-3) and lung (A-549) cancer cell lines with cell viability of 14.25%, 16.02% and 27.24%, respectively. The IC₅₀ of the total extract against HCT-116 and DU-145 cell lines were 7.81 μg/mL and 40.79 μg/mL, respectively. The observed cytotoxicity of the total methanolic extract from the leaves against colorectal cancer might facilitate future investigations on cytotoxic agent(s) for disease management.

Keywords: Astragalus fruticosus; HPLC–MS/MS profiling; colorectal cancer; cytotoxic activity.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2022R23), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.