Paris polyphylla Sm. Induces Reactive Oxygen Species and Caspase 3-Mediated Apoptosis in Colorectal Cancer Cells In Vitro and Potentiates the Therapeutic Significance of Fluorouracil and Cisplatin

Paris polyphylla Sm. (Melanthiaceae) is an essential, vulnerable herb with a wide range of traditional applications ranging from fever to cancer in various communities. The use of P. polyphylla in India is limited to traditional healers. Here, we demonstrated that P. polyphylla extract (PPE) has good phenol, flavonoid, saponin, and steroidal saponin content and anti-oxidant activity with IC50 35.12 +/- 6.1 mu g/mL in DPPH and 19.69 +/- 6.7 mu g/mL in ABTS. Furthermore, PPE induces cytotoxicity in HCT-116 with IC50 8.72 +/- 0.71 mu g/mL without significant cytotoxicity inthe normal human colon epithelial cell line, CCD 841 CoN. PPE inhibits the metastatic property and induces apoptosis in HCT-116, as measured by Annexin V/PI, by increasing the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and caspase 3 activation. PPE acts synergistically with 5FU and cisplatin in HCT-116 and potentiates their therapeutic significance. Steroidal saponins with anticancer activities were detected in PPE by HR-LCMS. The present study demonstrated that PPE induces apoptosis by increasing ROS and activating caspase 3, which was attributed to steroidal saponins. PPE can be used as a potential natural remedy for colon cancer.

Automated summary

Paris polyphylla Sm. (Melanthiaceae) is an important and vulnerable herb with a wide range of traditional applications. The extract of P. polyphylla (PPE) showed good antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity against HCT-116 colon cancer cells without significant toxicity to normal cells. PPE also exhibited synergistic effects with 5FU and cisplatin in HCT-116 cells. The anticancer activities of PPE were attributed to its steroidal saponins.