Apoptosis-inducing effects and growth inhibitory of a novel chalcone, in human hepatic cancer cells and lung cancer cells

Apoptosis is an important biological phenomenon, which affects many diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease. In the present study, we observed that chalcone 9X, an aromatic ketone, induced apoptosis of human hepatic and lung cancer cells and inhibited cancer cell migration and invasion. This compound strongly suppressed the growth of tumor in a mouse model of xenograft tumors. The anticancer activity of chalcone 9X was equivalent to 5-fluorouracil (5 FU) as a positive control agent, whereas the toxic effect of chalcone 9X in non-cancer cells was weaker than 5 FU. Molecular docking results showed that chalcone 9X could act on the active sites of pro-apoptotic proteins capspases-3 and -8 to induce apoptotic death of cancer cells. Our findings suggest that chalcone 9X might be considered a candidate compound of novel anticancer drug in the future.