Avaliação do efeito antitumoral do ácido cafeico e ácido vanílico sobre as células SK-Mel-28

Abstract

Phenolic compounds are frequently studied due to their properties and applicability, including to treat serious diseases such as cutaneous melanoma, a skin cancer with a high potential for metastasis and lethality. Among natural compounds, phenolic acids have shown promising results with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antitumor effects. Given this, this work aimed to evaluate the antioxidant activity of vanillic acid and caffeic acid and their antitumor activity in Sk-Mel-28 cells. Cutaneous melanoma cells were treated for 24 hours, with six dosages of caffeic acid and vanillic acid (50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1000μM) for subsequent cell viability, cytotoxicity, cell migration, evaluation of the oxidative profile through testing for the detection of reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitric oxide, ascorbic acid, protein and non-protein thiols. The action on the hydrolysis of adenine nucleotides was evaluated through assays of E-NTPDase and E-5′-nucleotidase activity and determination of adenosine deaminase.

The results obtained showed that both caffeic acid and vanillic acid reduced the migration of human metastatic melanoma cells, reduced the viability of these cells and also caused changes in their morphology, these effects being dose dependent. However, the compounds did not offer cytotoxicity to healthy cells, which demonstrates that they are safe for application. The compounds had a potential effect against oxidative damage by decreasing ROS levels, while NPSH levels increased, which may indicate an attempt at cell survival. However, PSH maintained oxidative stress levels (balance). Vanillic and caffeic acids showed the ability to modulate the purinergic system and showed that anti-inflammatory activities can be attributed to the regulation of inflammatory mediators. Therefore, the two compounds have promising pharmacological potential for the development of medication for the treatment of cutaneous melanoma.