Antiproliferative Activity of Lavatera cashmeriana- Protease Inhibitors towards Human Cancer Cells

Background: Proteases play a regulatory role in a variety of pathologies including cancer, pancreatitis,thromboembolic disorders, viral infections and many others. One of the possible strategies to combat thesepathologies seems to be the use of protease inhibitors. LC-pi I, II, III and IV (Lavatera cashmerian-proteaseinhibitors) have been found in vitro to strongly inhibit trypsin, chymotrypsin and elastase, proteases contributingto tumour invasion and metastasis, indicated possible anticancer effects. The purpose of this study was to checkin vitro anticancer activity of these four inhibitors on human lung cancer cell lines. Material and
Methods:In order to assess whether these inhibitors induced in vitro cytoxicity, SRB assay was conducted with THP-1(leukemia), NCIH322 (lung) and Colo205, HCT-116 (colon) lines.
Results: LC-pi I significantly inhibited thecell proliferation of all cells tested and also LC-pi II was active in all except HCT-116. Inhibition of cell growthby LC-pi III and IV was negligible. IC50 values of LC-pi I and II for NCIH322, were less compared to othercell lines suggesting that lung cancer cells are more inhibited.
Conclusion: These investigations might point tofuture preventive as well as curative solutions using plant protease inhibitors for various cancers, especially inthe lung, hence warranting their further investigation.