Canthinones are natural substances with a wide range of
biological activities, including
antipyretic,
antiparasitic, and antimicrobial. Antiproliferative and/or cytotoxic effects of canthinones on
cancer cells have also been described, although their mechanism of action remains ill defined. To gain better insight into this mechanism, the antiproliferative effect of a commercially available
canthin-6-one (1) was examined dose-dependently on six
cancer cell lines (human prostate, PC-3; human colon, HT-29; human lymphocyte, Jurkat; human cervix, HeLa; rat
glioma, C6; and mouse embryonic fibroblasts, NIH-3T3). Cytotoxic effects of 1 were investigated on the same
cancer cell lines by
procaspase-3 cleavage and on normal human skin fibroblasts. Strong antiproliferative effects of the compound were observed in all cell lines, whereas cytotoxic effects were very dependent on cell type. A better definition of the mechanism of action of 1 was obtained on PC-3 cells, by showing that it decreases
BrdU incorporation into
DNA by 60% to 80% and mitotic spindle formation by 70% and that it causes a 2-fold accumulation of cells in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. Together, the data suggest that the primary effect of
canthin-6-one (1) is antiproliferative, possibly by interfering with the G2/M transition. Proapoptotic effects might result from this disturbance of the cell cycle.