Extracts from Cell Suspension Cultures of Strawberry (<i>Fragaria x ananassa</i> Duch): Cytotoxic Effects on Human Cancer Cells
Simona Lucioli,
Fabio Pastorino,
Paolo Nota,
Giulia Ballan,
Andrea Frattarelli,
Alessia Fabbri,
Cinzia Forni,
Emilia Caboni
Affiliations
Simona Lucioli
Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria (CREA), Centro di ricerca Olivicoltura, Frutticoltura e Agrumicoltura (CREA-OFA), Via di Fioranello 52, 00134 Rome, Italy
Fabio Pastorino
Laboratorio di Terapie Sperimentali in Oncologia, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via G. Gaslini 5, 16147 Genoa, Italy
Paolo Nota
Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria (CREA), Centro di ricerca Olivicoltura, Frutticoltura e Agrumicoltura (CREA-OFA), Via di Fioranello 52, 00134 Rome, Italy
Giulia Ballan
Centro Nazionale per la Salute Globale, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
Andrea Frattarelli
Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria (CREA), Centro di ricerca Olivicoltura, Frutticoltura e Agrumicoltura (CREA-OFA), Via di Fioranello 52, 00134 Rome, Italy
Alessia Fabbri
Centro Nazionale per la Salute Globale, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
Cinzia Forni
Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica, 00133 Rome, Italy
Emilia Caboni
Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria (CREA), Centro di ricerca Olivicoltura, Frutticoltura e Agrumicoltura (CREA-OFA), Via di Fioranello 52, 00134 Rome, Italy
Natural compounds are emerging as agents for the treatment of malignant diseases. We previously showed that extracts from in vitro cell suspension cultures of strawberry reduced murine melanoma cell proliferation, as shown for fruit extracts. In this work, chromatographic, mass spectrometric, and spectrophotometric analyses were carried out to identify the bioactive compound exerting the detected cytotoxic activity. Moreover, aiming to confirm the anti-proliferative activity of the extracts against both paediatric and adult human tumors, cytotoxic experiments were performed on neuroblastoma, colon, and cervix carcinoma cell lines. Extracts from in vitro cell suspension cultures of strawberry induced a statistically significant reduction of cell growth in all the tumor cell lines tested. Interestingly, human fibroblasts from healthy donors were not subjected to this cytotoxic effect, highlighting the importance of further preclinical investigations. The accurate mass measurement, fragmentation patterns, and characteristic mass spectra and mass losses, together with the differences in chromatographic retention times and absorbance spectra, led us to hypothesize that the compound acting as an anti-proliferative agent could be a novel acetal dihydrofurofuran derivative (C8H10O3, molecular mass 154.0630 amu)
