Four new compounds, Paucinervin A, paucinervin B, paucinervin C, paucinervin D (1-4), and 15 known ones were isolated from the leaves of Garcinia paucinervis.
METHODS AND RESULTS:
The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic evidences. All of the 19 compounds were evaluated for their apoptosis-inducing effects using HeLa-C3 cells which have been genetically engineered to possess a fluorescent biosensor capable of detecting caspase-3 activation. Eight of them were found to activate caspase-3 in HeLa-C3 cells within 72 h at the concentration of 25 microM. Moreover, the values of IC50 were measured for all four new compounds on HeLa cells using the MTT assay. Among them, compound 2 (paucinervin B) had the lowest IC50 value of 9.5 microM, while the other three new compounds had much higher IC50 values of 29.5, 52.5, and 95.6 microM, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This result shows that paucinervin B has the strongest inhibitory effect against HeLa cell growth among these four newly identified paucinervins and it may have the potential to be developed into a new anticancer candidate. |