Abstract

BETULINIC ACID, A NATURAL BIO-ACTIVE COMPOUND: PROFICIENT TO INDUCE PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH IN HUMAN MYELOID LEUKEMIA

Sandeep Kumar Dash, Sourav Chattopadhyay, Satyajit Tripathy,
Shib Shankar Dash, Balaram Das, Debasis Mandal, Braja Gopal Bag,
Somenath Roy*

ABSTRACT

Betulinic acid (BA), plant derived pentacyclic Triterpenoid, exhibit selective anticancer functions in human cancer cells without showing harmful effects towards normal cells. The present study demonstrates that BA is highly effective against the human myeloid leukemia cell lines (KG-1A and K562). Selective anti-leukemic efficacy study of SA-BA was detected by time and dose dependent cell viability assay and based on this result 25µg/ml dose with 48 hours treatment period was selected for further experiments. It was observed that BA treatment significantly degrade the cellular redox state of KG-1A and K562 cells by elevating reactive oxygen species levels, which caused DNA damage and ultimately induced Apoptosis, confirmed by Annexin V-FITC + PI (Propidium iodide) dual staining using FACS. Involvement of caspase-3 was also noted for BA mediated apoptosis in KG-1A and K562 cells. Surprisingly, it was noted that BA treatment did not show harmful effects was noted for human blood lymphocytes.

Keywords: Betulinic acid, leukemia, reactive oxygen species, apoptosis.