In Vitro Cytotoxic Study of Euphorbia grantii Oliv. Aerial Parts against MCF-7 and MCF-7ADR Breast Cancer Cell Lines: A Bioactivity-Guided Isolation

Mai Hussin Radi; Riham A El-Shiekh; Ali M El-Halawany; Ahmed M Al-Abd; Essam Abdel-Sattar

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c02091

In Vitro Cytotoxic Study of Euphorbia grantii Oliv. Aerial Parts against MCF-7 and MCF-7^ADR Breast Cancer Cell Lines: A Bioactivity-Guided Isolation

ACS Omega. 2023 May 15;8(20):18299-18305. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c02091. eCollection 2023 May 23.

Authors

Mai Hussin Radi¹, Riham A El-Shiekh², Ali M El-Halawany², Ahmed M Al-Abd³, Essam Abdel-Sattar²

Affiliations

¹ Herbal Department, Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA), 12511 Giza, Egypt.
² Pharmacognosy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr El-Aini Street, 11562 Cairo, Egypt.
³ Pharmacology Department, Medical and Clinical Research Institute, National Research Centre, Dokki, 12622 Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

The development of highly efficient and low-toxicity anticancer drugs is one of the most critical problems in the medical field. Euphorbia grantii is commonly reported as an antiviral plant; a dilute solution of its latex is used for intestinal worms and to promote blood clotting and tissue healing. Our study evaluated the antiproliferative activity of the total extract, its respective fractions, and the isolated compounds from E. grantii aerial parts. A phytochemical study was done by several chromatographic methods, and the cytotoxic activity was assessed using the sulforhodamine B assay. The dichloromethane fraction (DCMF) exhibited promising cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MCF-7^ADR), with an IC₅₀ of 10.31 and 10.41 μg/mL, respectively. Chromatographic purification of the active fraction revealed the isolation of eight compounds. Among the isolated compounds, euphylbenzoate (EB) exhibited a promising effect with an IC₅₀ of 6.07 and 6.54 μM against MCF-7 and MCF-7^ADR, respectively, while other compounds showed no activity. Euphol, cycloartenyl acetate, cycloartenol, and epifriedelinyl acetate showed moderate activity (33.27-40.44 μM). Euphylbenzoate has smartly tackled both apoptosis and autophagy programmed cell death mechanisms. These results demonstrated that E. grantii aerial parts yield active compounds with significant antiproliferative potential.