Withania somnifera water extract as a potential candidate for differentiation based therapy of human neuroblastomas

PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e55316. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055316. Epub 2013 Jan 31.

Abstract

Neuroblastoma is an aggressive childhood disease of the sympathetic nervous system. Treatments are often ineffective and have serious side effects. Conventional therapy of neuroblastoma includes the differentiation agents. Unlike chemo-radiotherapy, differentiation therapy shows minimal side effects on normal cells, because normal non-malignant cells are already differentiated. Keeping in view the limited toxicity of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), the current study was aimed to investigate the efficacy of Ashwagandha water extract (ASH-WEX) for anti-proliferative potential in neuroblastoma and its underlying signalling mechanisms. ASH-WEX significantly reduced cell proliferation and induced cell differentiation as indicated by morphological changes and NF200 expression in human IMR-32 neuroblastoma cells. The induction of differentiation was accompanied by HSP70 and mortalin induction as well as pancytoplasmic translocation of the mortalin in ASH-WEX treated cells. Furthermore, the ASH-WEX treatment lead to induction of neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) expression and reduction in its polysialylation, thus elucidating its anti-migratory potential, which was also supported by downregulation of MMP 2 and 9 activity. ASH-WEX treatment led to cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase and increase in early apoptotic population. Modulation of cell cycle marker Cyclin D1, anti-apoptotic marker bcl-xl and Akt-P provide evidence that ASH-WEX may prove to be a promising phytotherapeutic intervention in neuroblatoma related malignancies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Annexin A5
  • Blotting, Western
  • Cell Cycle Checkpoints / physiology
  • Cell Differentiation / drug effects*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation / drug effects*
  • DNA Primers / genetics
  • Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate
  • HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules / metabolism
  • Neuroblastoma / drug therapy*
  • Phytotherapy / methods*
  • Plant Extracts / pharmacology*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Water
  • Withania / chemistry*

Substances

  • Annexin A5
  • DNA Primers
  • HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins
  • Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules
  • Plant Extracts
  • mortalin
  • Water
  • Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate
  • Ashwagandha

Grants and funding

The study was supported by grants from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India to Guru Nanak Dev University, under DBT-AIST, Japan collaboration program. H. K. is supported by fellowship grant from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.