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Promising antitumor effect of alpha-tocopheryl succinate in human colon and liver cancer cells

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Abstract

The main strategy to treat any type of cancer is to look for the therapeutic agents which specifically induce apoptosis in the malignant cells sparing normal cells. The present study was performed to investigate the potential cytotoxicity of alpha-tocopheryl succinate (α-TOS), a semi-synthetic vitamin E analog, in colon and liver cancer cells. α-TOS inhibited proliferation of HCT-116 and HepG-2 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Here in, α-TOS induced cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase in both cell lines and triggered apoptosis via activation of caspase-9, thus initiating the caspase cascade in the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway. On the other hand, no significant change in the level of the antiapoptotic protein, Bcl-2 was detected. DNA fragmentation, a hallmark of apoptosis, was observed in HCT-116 cells after 48 h and in HepG-2 cells after 24 h treatment. Inhibition of angiogenesis was evident by a significant reduction (P < 0.001) in the VEGF protein levels after 24 and 48 h of α-TOS treatment, relative to the control values. Conclusively, α-TOS showed a promising anticancer activity through its apoptotic and antiangiogenic potentials in colon and liver tumor cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo, 11562, Egypt

    Amal A. Abd-El Fattah, Hebatallah A. Darwish & Nevine Fathy

  2. Department of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Amira Raafat

  3. Department of Cancer Biology, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Samia A. Shouman

Authors
  1. Amal A. Abd-El Fattah
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  2. Hebatallah A. Darwish
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  3. Nevine Fathy
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  4. Amira Raafat
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  5. Samia A. Shouman
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Correspondence to Hebatallah A. Darwish.

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Abd-El Fattah, A.A., Darwish, H.A., Fathy, N. et al. Promising antitumor effect of alpha-tocopheryl succinate in human colon and liver cancer cells. Med Chem Res 21, 2735–2743 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-011-9801-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-011-9801-3

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