Capillary electrophoretic study of the synergistic biological effects of alkaloids from Chelidonium majus L. in normal and cancer cells

In this study, the synergistic biological action of five celandine alkaloids in normal and cancer cells was investigated by capillary electrophoresis with light-emitting diode-induced native fluorescence detection. The specific capacity of each alkaloid to penetrate into the cells was estimated by monitoring alkaloid concentration decreases in the cell medium during incubation with murine fibroblast NIH/3T3, mouse melanoma B16F10, and human breast cancer MCF7 cell lines. Mixtures of isoquinoline alkaloids containing protopine, chelidonine, sanguinarine, allocryptopine, and stylopine were applied to cell cultures for 20 and 40 min, and the content of alkaloids in the cell media was measured by capillary electrophoresis (CE). CE separation of isoquinoline alkaloids was performed in 30 mM phosphate buffer (pH 2.5). As these alkaloids have native fluorescence, they were directly detected using the commercially available UV light-emitting diode without troublesome fluorescent derivatization. The results showed a differential ability of celandine alkaloids to penetrate into the normal and cancer cell interior, which was inversely proportional to their cytotoxic activity. While the most effective transport of celandine alkaloids from the cell medium to the cell interior was observed for normal murine fibroblast NIH/3T3 cells (about 55% of total content), cytotoxicity tests demonstrated selective and profound apoptotic effects of a five-alkaloid combination in the mouse melanoma B16F10 cell line.