Ent-18 acetoxy-7β hydorxykaur-16en-15one from Cronton tonkinesis induces cell
death and down- regulates anti-apoptotic gene XIAP through NF-κB signaling
Name of dispatched researcher (派遣研究者名)
Instructor （指導教官,研究指導者）
Affiliation of Instructor (所属)
Host Collaborator (受入研究者)

Xuyen Thi
Ph.D
Khoi Minh Nguyen
Dr
Vietnam National Institute of Medicinal Material
Ikuo Saiki

Abstract

An ent-kaurane diterpenoid ent-18acetoxy-7beta hydroxykaur-16en-15one (Cp7) was
isolated from the dried leaves of Cronton tonkinesis Gagnep which is an indigenuos plant
being widely used in Vietnamease Traditional Medicine. Cp7 induced cell death of 6 tested
human cancer cell lines with IC50 (concentration inhibiting 50% of cell growth) values
change from 15.74 ± 1.75 to 36.63 ± 1.19 µM, implying its cytotoxic potential to manykinds of cancer cells. We investigated that Cp7 induces cell death via apoptotic pathway by
inhibiting p-NFĸB p65 and down-regulating XIAP expression. It could become a usefulcompound to develop a new anti-cancer reagent.

60Ent-18 acetoxy-7β hydorxykaur-16en-15one from Cronton tonkinesis induces cell death and downregulates anti-apoptotic gene XIAP through NF-kB signaling
Phi Thi Xuyena, Phuong Thien Thuonga, Nguyen Minh Khoia, Yoshihiro Hayakawab, Satoru Yokoyamab, Ikuo
SaikibaVietnam National Institute of Medicinal Material
Division of Pathogenic Biochemistry Institute of Natural Medicine, Toyama University, Japanb

1. Backgrounds (Introduction)
Cronton tonkinesis belongs to Euphobiaceae which grows wildly in Vietnam, and is commonly known as
Kho sam cho la in Vietnamese [1-3]. In traditional medicine, Cronton species are used as remedies for gastric andduodenal ulcers and many other diseases. Some ent-kauranes diterpenoids isolated from the leaves of Cronton
tonikinesis could inhibit NF-κB activity [4, 5] but the anti-cancer effect have not well-understood.
Apoptosis is the programmed cell death with morphological characteristics including cellular shrinkage,
membrane blebbing. Apoptotic signal pathways are activated through caspase cascades containing initiator andexecutioner caspase (caspase-3, -6, -7) activation. The activity of executioner caspase is directly blocked by IAPs
(inhibitor of apoptosis proteins). Among IAPs, XIAP (X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein) has been shown tobe highly expressed in many tumors and also induces the resistance of tumor to therapeutic agents. XIAP expression
is transcriptionally regulated by nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) [6], whichis involved in inflammation, carcinogenesis, pro-apoptosis and anti-apoptosis [7].
In this study, we determined on the cytotoxicity of ent-18acetoxy-7beta hydroxykaur-16en-15one (Cp7),
which isolated from Cronton tonkinesis Gagnep, in 6 cancer cell lines. Cp7 could induce apoptosis bydownregulating XIAP via inhibition of NF-kB signaling.
2. Materials and methods
4.1 ent-18acetoxy-7beta hydroxykaur-16en-15one (Cp7)
ent-18acetoxy-7beta hydroxykaur-16en-15one (Cp7) was isolated from Cronton tonkinesis Gagnep in
Vietnam National Institute of Medicinal Material.
4.2 Cell culture
MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, HT29, PANC1, UACC257, and SK-MEL-2 cells were maintained in
Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) or RPMI 1640 medium with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS), 2mM LGlutamine, 100U/ml penicillin and 100µg/ml Streptomycin at 37oC in a humidified 5% CO2 and 95% air atmosphere.
4.3 WST-1 assay
Cytotoxic activity was assayed by WST-1 Cell counting kit (Wako Pure Chemical industries Ltd.) [8].
Briefly, the cells were seeded at density of 1x104 cells/well to 96-well plate. After overnight incubation, 10 µl
medium containing various concentrations of Cp7 was added to each well. At the indicated time points, 10µl WST1 solution was added and the absorbance at 450 nm was measured using the micro-plate reader. Cell viability wasdetermined by normalizing to vehicle control.

4.4 Apoptosis assays
61

Cells were seeded at density of 5x105 cells/well to 6 wells plate and allowed to adhere overnight. The cells
were treated with Cp7 at the indicated concentrations for 24 hours. The cells were washed with cold PBS and thencollected. After washing the cells with cold PBS, the cell pellets were re-suspended with PBS 1x contains 1% BSA
at 1x106 cells/ml. 100 µl of Muse Annexin-V and Dead cell Reagent (Millipore Co.) was added to 100 µl of cells.
After incubation for 20 minutes at room temperature in dark, apoptotic cells were measured by Muse system.
4.5 Western blot analysis
Whole cell lysates were collected as described previously [8]. Primary antibodies we used were; Caspase
3, PARP, XIAP, Phospho-NF-κB p65, and NF-κB p65 (Cell signaling Technology, Inc)
5. Results
5.1 ent-18acetoxy-7beta hydroxykaur-16en-15one (Cp7) inhibits cell viabilities.
During the search for the potent of anticancer agents from the Vietnamese natural products, we found thatmany compounds isolated from Cronton tonkinesis . Among them, we focused on the one new ent-Kaurane
diterpenoid, ent-18acetoxy-7beta hydroxykaur-16en-15one (Cp7), in this study. To investigate the effect of Cp7 incancer cells, we firstly used 6 cancer cell lines, one pancreatic carcinoma (Panc-1), one adenocarcinoma (HT-29),
two melanoma (UACC-257 and SK-MEL-2), two breast cancer (MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB468). Surprisingly,
Cp7 could suppress the cell viabilities in all human cancer cell lines with IC50 (concentration inhibiting 50% of cell
growth) values from 15.7 ± 1.8 to 36.6 ± 1.2 µM (Fig. 1 and Table 1). These suggest that Cp7 inhibits the cell
viabilities in cancer cells.
160
140(%) Cell viablility

120
Dong PANC1
100

Dong HT29
Dong UACC257

80

Dong 231
Dong 468

60

SK MEL 2
40
20
0
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Cp7 (µM)

Fig. 1 6 human cancer cell lines were treated with 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 µM of Cp7 for 24h. Absorbance wasmeasured following incubation with WST-1 reagent and cell viability was calculated as a percentage comparedwith the untreated cells group.
Table.1. IC50 values of Cp7 on 6 cancer cell lines.
PANC-1
IC50 (µM)

UACC-257

HT-29

16.41±1.87 20.46± 3.59 27.47±1.18

MDA-MB-231 MDA-MB-468
22.74±1.75

15.74±1.75

SK-MEL-2
36.63±1.19

The data were analyzed by Sigma Plot with p value was less than 0.001. Each value represents mean ± SD from 3
triplicates.

5.2 Cp7 induces apoptosis in cancer cells.

62

To determine the inhibition of cell viability by Cp7 is caused by apoptosis, we checked the apoptotic cell
death by annexin-V staining (Fig. 2) and the expression of apoptotic markers by western blot analysis (Fig. 3) in
MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and UACC-257 melanoma cells. As shown in Fig. 2, the induction of annexinV-positive cells, which contain the early and late apoptotic cells, was detected in both cell lines at a dose-dependent
manner. Consistent with annexin-V staining, the apoptotic markers, both cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved PARP, were
induced at a dose- and time-dependent manner (Fig. 3). Collectively, these suggest that Cp7 induces apoptosis incancer cells.

A

Control

4 M

8 M

12 M

4 M

8 M

12 M

B

Control

Fig. 2. MDA-MB-231 (A) or UACC-257 (B) were treated with Cp7 for 24h at the indicated dose. The cells werelabeled with Annexin-V and Dead cell kit solution and analyzed by Muse system. The values indicated thepercentage of living, early apoptotic, late apoptotic/dead, and dead cells. At the dose 12 µM the percentage of total
apoptotic cells were 89% and 73.95% (data not shown) in MDA-MB-231 and UACC-257, respectively.

8 hs

4 hs
0
Pro Caspase-3
Cleaved4

8 12 0 4

12 hs

8 12 0 4 8 12

4hs
µM

0 4

8hs

12hs

8 12 0 4 8 12 0 4 8 12 µM

Pro Caspase-3
CleavedPro PARP
CleavedPro PARP
Cleaved

Actin

Actin

A. MDA-MB-231 cell line
B. UACC-257 cell line
Fig 3. Cp7 induces apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 (A) and UACC-257 (B). Apoptotic markers (arrow), Caspase-3
and PARP cleavage, were detected by western blot analysis. β-Actin was used as a loading control.
5.3 Cp7 inhibits XIAP expression through NF-κB signaling.
Next to investigate whether Cp7 affects the expression of anti-apoptotic protein, we checked some antiapoptotic protein such as BCL-xL, MCL1, or XIAP in MDA-MB-231 and UACC-257 cells. Shown in Fig. 4, XIAP
was only suppressed by Cp7 in both cell lines at a dose- and time-dependent manner, whereas other proteins wechecked such as Bcl-XL and Mcl-1 were not affected. In addition, the expression of NF-κB p65, one of the upstream
63transcription factors of XIAP, was inhibited, following to the phosphorylation of p65. These suggested that Cp7
might inhibit XIAP expression via NF-κB signaling.
4 hs
0

4

8 hs

8 12 0 4

8

12 hs
12 0

4 8

4 hs
μM

12

0

NFκB p65

NFκB p65

P-NFκB p65

P-NFκB p65

XIAP

XIAP

actin

actin

A: MDA-MB 231

4

8 hs

8 12 0 4

8

12 hs
12 0

4 8

12

μM

B. UACC 257
4 hs
0

4

8 hs

8 12 0 4

8

12 hs
12 0

4 8

12

μM

Mcl-1

Bcl-XLactin

C. MDA-MB 231
Fig. 4 Cp7 inhibits expressions of XIAP and NFĸB p65 in apoptotic cells. NFĸB p65, XIAP and p-NFĸB p65 weredetected in total cell extracts by goat-antibodies and rabbit antibody respectively. A, B. Cp7 mediated reduction ofNFĸB p65 and active form phosphorylated NFĸB p65. This reduction depends on time and dose manner. XIAP was
down-regulated by treated Cp7. C. Cp7 treatment did not result in a reduction in expression of anti-apoptotic protein
such as Bcl-XL, Mcl-1 in MDA MB 231 cell line.
6.

Discussion
In this study, we showed the inhibition of cell viabilities by ent-18acetoxy-7beta hydroxykaur-16en-15one(Cp7) isolated from the dried leaves of Cronton tonkinesis Gagnep, in various human cancer cells. The Cp7-induced
apoptosis is mediated through the inhibition of XIAP and NF-κB signaling.
Ent-Kauranes are diterpenoid compounds commonly found in many plants. These compounds exhibit
significant anti-tumor, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities [3]. Especially, other ent-kauranes isolated
from Cronton tonkinesis have also been reported to have anti-cancer effects through apoptosis in hepatocelluar
carcinoma cells, breast cancer cells, and Raw 264.7 by unknown mechanisms [3]. In this study, we firstly reported
that an ent-kaurane ent-18acetoxy-7 hydroxykaur-16en-15 one (Cp7) isolated from Cronton tonkinesis has antitumor effects in many types of cancer cells (Fig. 1 and Table 1). The cytotoxicity could enhance until 90% in thegenetic or phenotypic backgrounds.
We newly identified the molecular mechanisms how one of Ent-Kauranes, Cp7, could show anti-tumor
effects through inhibiting NF-κB signaling. It also has been reported that NFĸB is activated in cancer cell by several
chemotherapies and this response inhibits the ability of cancer therapy to induce cell death [7]. Because somechemo-resistances are caused by activated NF-κB signaling, Cp7 could increase the sensitivities to chemotherapy
even in the case of acquired drug-resistant tumors. Far from anti-tumor effects, NF-κB signaling is also involved in
the inflammatory or angiogenesis. It suggests that Cp7 could be a good candidate not only for anti-tumor reagents
but also anti-inflammatory reagents for the patients with allergy.
NF-κB signaling we identified is known to regulate XIAP expression besides BCL-xL and MCL1 [9]. Even
though Cp7 inhibits NF-kB p65 in our results, BCL-xL and MCL1 expression were not affected. It could be possiblethat Cp7 only inhibit the p65-XIAP axis. Nevertheless, Cp7 could have multiple functions, which suppresses XIAP
expression independent on NF-κB. Collectively, these results strongly suggest that Cp7 could become a good leadcompound for anti-tumor therapy regardless of their tumor types.
64

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