In vitro and In vivo Growth Inhibition and Apoptosis of Cancer Cells by Ethyl 4-[(4-methylbenzyl)oxy] Benzoate Complex

Background: Cancer chemotherapy is one of the best ways to treat the patients with cancer as they can remove cancer cells, which can’t be remove by radiation or surgery.

Aims:Our study is focused on identifying potent chemotherapeutic drugs with minor or no adverse side effects. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to synthesize ethyl 4-[(4-methylbenzyl)oxy] benzoate complex, a macrocyclic aromatic compound followed by testing its antineoplastic activity against Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) human breast cancer (MCF7) cells.

Methods: In vitro and in vivo assays were used for monitoring, cytotoxicity, tumor weight, survival time, tumor cell growth inhibition, and hematological parameters to investigate the anticancer effectiveness of the tested compound. Quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to examine the expression of growth and apoptotic related genes. Haematological and biochemical parameters were assessed to examine the host toxicity in mice.

Results: The compound exhibited notable anticancer activity against both EAC and MCF7cells. It showed 40.70 and 58.98 % cell growth inhibition at the doses of 0.5 and 1.00 mg/kg, respectively in comparison to that of control EAC-bearing mice (p <0.0001). The result is comparable with clinically used chemotherapeutic drugs cisplatin (59.2% growth inhibition at the dose of 1.0 mg/kg body weight). A four folds reduction of tumor weight (volume) of treated group at higher dose (1.0 mg/kg/day) was noted in comparison to that of untreated EAC-bearing mice. Also, the mean survival time of treated mice (1.00 mg/kg) increased by more than 83.07% when compared to that of control EAC-bearing mice (p<0.001). In addition, EAC-bearing control mice showed drastic deterioration of RBC, WBC, and % of hemoglobin, however, in the treated mice these parameters were restored towards normal levels. A dose dependent reduction of growth and proliferation of MCF7 cells was noted in compound treated cells. Most importantly, apoptosis of MCF7 was induced followed by activation of pro-apoptotic genes (p53, Bax, Parp, Caspase-3, -8, -9) and inactivation of antiapoptotic, e.g. Bcl2 gene. Toxicological studies reveal that there were changes in hematological (RBC, WBC, % of Hb) and biochemical (serum glucose, cholesterol, creatinine, SGOT, SGPT) parameters during the treatment period, however, the parameters returned towards normal levels after the treatment period, indicating no or minor toxic effect of the compound on the host.

Conclusion: The compound has promising anticancer activity with no or minimum host toxic effects. Thus, it has the potential to be formulated as an effective chemo-agent, however, further preclinical and clinical research is imperative using animal and human models.