Abstract
Chemoprevention is regarded as one of the most promising and realistic approaches in the prevention of human cancer. Ellagic acid (EA) has been known for its chemopreventive activity against various cancers and numerous investigations have shown its apoptotic activity both in vivo and in vitro. The present study was focused to elucidate the anticancerous effect and the mode of action of EA against HCT-15 colon adenocarcinoma cells. Cell viability was assessed using trypan blue assay at different concentrations. EA also promoted cell cycle arrest substantially at G2/M phase in HCT-15 cells. The activities of alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase were decreased upon EA treatment, which shows the antiproliferative and the cytotoxic effects, respectively. The production of reactive oxygen intermediates, which were examined by 2,7-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H2DCF-DA), increased with time, after treatment with EA. In further studies, EA inhibited proliferation-associated markers proliferating cell nuclear antigen and cyclin D1. The induction of apoptosis was accompanied by a strong inactivation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway by EA. The expression of PI3K and pAkt was down-regulated in EA-treated cells, compared to normal cells. Further, EA promoted the expression of Bax, caspase-3, and cytochrome c, and suppression of Bcl-2 activity in HCT-15 cells that was determined by western blot analysis. Increased annexin V apoptotic cells and DNA fragmentation also accompanied EA-induced apoptosis. In conclusion, EA increased the production of ROS, decreased cell proliferation, and induced apoptosis in HCT-15 cells, and thus can be used as an agent against colon cancer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Jemal ABF, Center MM, Ferlay J, Ward E, Forman D (2011) Global cancer statistics. CA Cancer J Clin 61:69–90
Reddy BS, Cohen LA (1986) Diet and colon cancer. In: evidence from human and animal model studies. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 47–65
Giovannucci E, Stampfer MJ, Colditz G, Rimm EB, Willett WC (1992) Relationship of diet to risk of colorectal adenoma in men. J Natl Cancer Inst 84:91–98
Surh YJ (2003) Cancer chemoprevention with dietary phytochemicals. Nat Rev Cancer 3:768–780
Millan A, Huerta S (2009) Apoptosis-inducing factor and colon cancer. J Surg Res 151:163–170
Efferth T (2012) Signal transduction pathways of the epidermal growth factor receptor in colorectal cancer and their inhibition by small molecules. Curr Med Chem 19:5735–5744
Michl P, Downward J (2005) Mechanisms of disease: PI3K/AKT signaling in gastrointestinal cancers. Gastroenterology 43:1133–1139
Mitsiades CS, Mitsiades N, Koutsilieris M (2004) The Akt pathway: molecular targets for anti-cancer drug development. Curr Cancer Drug Targets 4:235–256
Song G, Ouyang G, Bao S (2005) The activation of Akt/PKB signaling pathway and cell survival. J Cell Mol Med 9:59–71
Jurenka JS (2008) Therapeutic applications of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.): a review. Altern Med Rev 13:128–144
Li TM, Chen GW, Su CC, Lin JG, Yeh CC, Cheng KC, Chung JG (2005) Ellagic acid induced p53/p21 expression, G1 arrest and apoptosis in human bladder cancer T24 cells. Anticancer Res 25:971–979
Losso JN, Bansode RR, Trappey II A, Bawadi HA, Truax R (2004) In vitro anti-proliferative activities of ellagic acid. J Nutr Biochem 15:672–678
Mertens-Talcott SU, Bomser JA, Romero C, Talcott ST, Percival SS (2005) Ellagic acid potentiates the effect of quercetin on p21waf1/cip1, p53, and MAP-kinases without affecting intracellular generation of reactive oxygen species in vitro. J Nutr 135:609–614
Umesalma S, Sudhandiran G (2011) Ellagic acid prevents rat colon carcinogenesis induced by 1, 2-dimethyl hydrazine through inhibition of AKT-phosphoinositide-3 kinase pathway. Eur J Pharmacol 660:249–258
Umesalma S, Sudhandiran G (2010) Differential inhibitory effects of the polyphenol ellagic acid on inflammatory mediators NF-kappaB, iNOS, COX-2, TNF-alpha, and IL-6 in 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced rat colon carcinogenesis. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol 107:650–655
Umesalma S, Nagendraprabhu P, Sudhandiran G (2014) Antiproliferative and apoptotic-inducing potential of ellagic acid against 1,2-dimethyl hydrazine-induced colon tumorigenesis in Wistar rats. Mol Cell Biochem 388:157–172
Pettit GR, Hoard MS, Doubek DL, Schmidt JM, Pettit RK, Tackett LP, Chapuis JC (1996) Antineoplastic agents 338. The cancer cell growth inhibitory. Constituents of Terminalia arjuna (Combretaceae). J Ethnopharmacol 53:57–63
Rasola A, Geuna M (2001) A flow cytometry assay simultaneously detects independent apoptotic parameters. Cytometry 45:151–157
Sriram N, Kalayarasan S, Ashokkumar P, Sureshkumar A, Sudhandiran G (2008) Diallyl sulfide induces apoptosis in Colo 320 DM human colon cancer cells: involvement of caspase-3, NF-kappaB, and ERK-2. Mol Cell Biochem 311:157–165
Neutra M, Louvard D (1989) Functional epithelial cells in culture. Alan R Liss Inc., New York, pp 363–368
King J (1963) Lactate dehydrogenase. In: King J (ed) Practical clinical enzymology. D. Van Norstrand Co., London, pp 83–93
Towbin H, Stahelin H, Gordon J (1979) Electrophoretic transfer of proteins from polyacrylamide gel to nitrocellulose sheets: procedure and some applications. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76:4350–4354
Ho YS, Wang YJ, Lin JK (1996) Induction of p53 and p21/WAF1/CIP1 expression by nitric oxide and their association with apoptosis in human cancer cells. Mol Carcinog 16:20–31
Sudhandiran G, Shaha C (2003) Antimonial-induced increase in intracellular Ca2+through non-selective cation channels in the host and the parasite is responsible for apoptosis of intracellular Leishmania donovani amastigotes. J Biol Chem 278:25120–25132
Lee YC, Lin HH, Hsu CH, Wang CJ, Chiang TA, Chen JH (2010) Inhibitory effects of andrographolide on migration and invasion in human non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells via down-regulation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Eur J Pharmacol 632:23–32
Hennessy BT, Smith DL, Ram PT, Lu Y, Mills GB (2005) Exploiting the PI3K/AKT pathway for cancer drug discovery. Nat Rev Drug Discov 4:988–1004
Cory S, Adams JM (2002) The Bcl2 family: regulators of the cellular life-or-death switch. Nat Rev Cancer 2:647–656
Grutter MG (2000) Caspases: key players in programmed cell death. Curr Opin Struct Biol 10:649–655
Elmore S (2007) Apoptosis: a review of programmed cell death. Toxicol Pathol 35:495–516
Gupta K, Thakur VS, Bhaskaran N, Nawab A, Babcook MA, Jackson MW, Gupta S (2012) Green tea polyphenols induce p53-dependent and p53-independent apoptosis in prostate cancer cells through two distinct mechanisms. PLoS ONE 7:e52572
Vicinanza R, Zhang Y, Henning SM, Heber D (2003) Pomegranate juice metabolites, ellagic acid and urolithin A, synergistically inhibit androgen-independent prostate cancer cell growth via distinct effects on cell cycle control and apoptosis. Evid Based Complement Altern Med. doi:10.1155/2013/247504
Yuasa H, Hirano K, Kodama H, Nakanishi H, Imai T, Tsuda H, Imaida K, Tatematsu M (1994) Immunohistochemical demonstration of intestinal-type alkaline phosphatase in stomach tumors induced by N-Methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine in rats. Jpn J Cancer Res 85:897–903
Reynertson KA, Charlson ME, Gudas LJ (2011) Induction of murine embryonic stem cell differentiation by medicinal plant extracts. Exp Cell Res 317:82–93
Sharif T, Auger C, Alhosin M, Ebel C, Achour M, Etienne-Selloum N, Fuhrmann G, Bronner C, Schini-Kerth VB (2010) Red wine polyphenols cause growth inhibition and apoptosis in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells by inducing a redox-sensitive up-regulation of p73 and down-regulation of UHRF1. Eur J Cancer 46:983–994
Jeong JC, Jang SW, Kim TH, Kwon CH, Kim YK (2010) Mulberry fruit (Moris fructus) extracts induce human glioma cell death in vitro through ROS-dependent mitochondrial pathway and inhibits glioma tumor growth in vivo. Nutr Cancer 62:402–412
Wang J, Zhang GY, Li XH (2006) Effect of indomethacin on Bfl-1, WISP-1 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen in colon cancer cell line HCT116 cells. Chin J Dig Dis 7:219–224
Subramaniya BR, Srinivasan G, Sadullah SS, Davis N, Subhadara LB, Halagowder D, Sivasitambaram ND (2011) Apoptosis inducing effect of plumbagin on colonic cancer cells depends on expression of COX-2. PLoS ONE 6:e18695
Arber N, Hibshoosh H, Moss SF, Sutter T, Zhang Y, Begg M, Wang S, Weinstein IB, Holt PR (1996) Increased expression of cyclin D1 is an early event in multistage colorectal carcinogenesis. Gastroenterology 110:669–674
Bartkova J, Lukas J, Strauss M, Bartek J (1994) The PRAD-1/cyclin D1 oncogene product accumulates aberrantly in a subset of colorectal carcinomas. Int J Cancer 58:568–573
Umesalma S, Sudhandiran G (2010) Chemomodulation of the antioxidative enzymes and peroxidative damage in the colon of 1,2-dimethyl hydrazine-induced rats by ellagicacid. Phytother Res 1:S114–119
Cantley LC (2002) The phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway. Science 296:1655–1657
Roy HK, Olusola BF, Clemens DL, Karolski WJ, Ratashak A, Lynch HT, Smyrk TC (2002) AKT proto-oncogene overexpression is an early event during sporadic colon carcinogenesis. Carcinogenesis 23:201–205
Adams LS, Seeram NP, Aggarwal BB, Takada Y, Sand D, Heber D (2006) Pomegranate juice, total pomegranate ellagitannins, and punicalagin suppress inflammatory cell signaling in colon cancer cells. J Agric Food Chem 54:980–985
Huang J, Che MI, Lin NY, Hung JS, Huang YT, Lin WC, Huang HC, Lee PH, Liang JT, Huang MC (2013) The molecular chaperone Cosmc enhances malignant behaviors of colon cancer cells via activation of Akt and ERK. Mol Carcinog 1:E62–71
Cheng JQ, Lindsley CW, Cheng GZ, Yang H, Nicosia SV (2005) The Akt/PKB pathway: molecular target for cancer drug discovery. Oncogene 24:7482–7492
Palozza P, Torelli C, Boninsegna A, Simone R, Catalano A, Mele MC, Picci N (2009) Growth-inhibitory effects of the astaxanthin-rich alga Haematococcus pluvialis in human colon cancer cells. Cancer Lett 283:108–117
Singh M, Singh R, Bhui K, Tyagi S, Mahmood Z, Shukla Y (2011) Tea polyphenols induce apoptosis through mitochondrial pathway and by inhibiting nuclear factor-kappaB and Akt activation in human cervical cancer cells. Oncol Res 19:245–257
Granado-Serrano AB, Martín MA, Bravo L, Goya L, Ramos S (2006) Quercetin induces apoptosis via caspase activation, regulation of Bcl-2, and inhibition of PI-3-kinase/Akt and ERK pathways in a human hepatoma cell line (HepG2). J Nutr 136:2715–2721
Saglam O, Garrett CR, Boulware D, Sayegh Z, Shibata D, Malafa M, Yeatman T, Cheng JQ, Sebti S, Coppola D (2007) Activation of the serine/threonine protein kinase AKT during the progression of colorectal neoplasia. Clin Colorectal Cancer 6:652–656
Nakanishi K, Sakamoto M, Yamasaki S, Todo S, Hirohashi S (2005) Akt phosphorylation is a risk factor for early disease recurrence and poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma. Cancer 103:307–312
Hanahan D, Weinberg RA (2000) The hallmarks of cancer. Cell 100:57–70
Pettersson M, Jernberg-Wiklund H, Larsson LG, Sundstrom C, Givol I, Tsujimoto Y, Nilsson K (1992) Expression of the bcl-2 gene in human multiple myeloma cell lines and normal plasma cells. Blood 79:495–502
Oltvai ZN, Milliman CL, Korsmeyer SJ (1993) Bcl-2 heterodimerizes in vivo with a conserved homolog, Bax, that accelerates programmed cell death. Cell 74:609–619
Ho CC, Huang AC, Yu CS, Lien JC, Wu SH, Huang YP, Huang HY, Kuo JH, Liao WY, Yang JS, Chen PY, Chung JG (2013) Ellagic acid induces apoptosis in tsgh8301 human bladder cancer cells through the endoplasmic reticulum stress- and mitochondria-dependent signaling pathways. Environ Toxicol. doi:10.1002/tox.21857
Seeram NP, Adams LS, Henning SM, Niu Y, Zhang Y, Nair MG, Heber D (2005) In vitro antiproliferative, apoptotic and antioxidant activities of punicalagin, ellagic acid and a total pomegranate tannin extract are enhanced in combination with other polyphenols as found in pomegranate juice. J Nutr Biochem 16:360–367
Kao TY, Chung YC, Hou YC, Tsai YW, Chen CH, Chang HP, Chou JL, Hsu CP (2012) Effects of ellagic acid on chemosensitivity to 5-fluorouracil in colorectal carcinoma cells. Anticancer Res 32:4413–4418
Acknowledgments
The authors S. Umesalma and P. Nagendraprabhu gratefully acknowledge the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India for the financial assistance in the form of Senior Research Fellowship.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Umesalma, S., Nagendraprabhu, P. & Sudhandiran, G. Ellagic acid inhibits proliferation and induced apoptosis via the Akt signaling pathway in HCT-15 colon adenocarcinoma cells. Mol Cell Biochem 399, 303–313 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-014-2257-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-014-2257-2