Planta Med 2014; 80 - PD54
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1382475

Discovery of anticancer lead compounds from plants of Vietnam

D Djendoel Soejarto 1, 2, L Bueno Pérez 3, Y Ren 3, L Pan 3, U Muñoz Acuña 4, HB Chai 3, EJ Carcache de Blanco 3, 4, S Swanson 1, TN Ninh 5, AD Kinghorn 3
  • 1Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • 2Botany Division, Field Museum, Chicago, IL 60605, USA
  • 3Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy
  • 4Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administration, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
  • 5Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam

As part of a P01 collaborative research between the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Ohio State University field expeditions were undertaken in Vietnam from 2004 – 2011 to collect plants for study as potential anticancer agents. The field expeditions resulted in the acquisition of 1,019 primary screening samples, comprising of 445 phytochemically underexplored endemic species. Extracts of 824 samples represented by 398 species were submitted for cytotoxicity (HT-29 and CCD-112CoN) as well as mechanism-based assays (NF-κB p65, proteasome, and MTP inhibition). As a result, 17 new and 42 known compounds with in vitro activity (IC50 < 10 µM) were purified by cytotoxicity-guided fractionation. This research has demonstrated that tropical plants continue to provide numerous chemically diverse secondary metabolites with activity and selectivity for cancer cells.