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Antiproliferative effects of mitraphylline, a pentacyclic oxindole alkaloid of Uncaria tomentosa on human glioma and neuroblastoma cell lines.

García Prado E, García Gimenez MD, De la Puerta Vázquez R, Espartero Sánchez JL, Sáenz Rodríguez MT

Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Seville, c/ Profesor García González n. 2, 41012 Seville, Spain.

Uncaria tomentosa inner bark extract is a popular plant remedy used in folk medicine to treat tumor and inflammatory processes. In this study, the anti-tumoral effects of its pentacyclic alkaloid mitraphylline were investigated. Furthermore, its growth-inhibitory and cytotoxic effects on glioma GAMG and neuroblastoma SKN-BE(2) cell lines were studied using cyclophosphamide and vincristine as controls. A colter counter was used to determine viable cell numbers, followed by application of the tetrazolium compound [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium], inner salt, colorimetric method to evaluate cell viability in this cytotoxicity assay. Micromolar concentrations of mitraphylline (from 5 to 40 microM) inhibited the growth of both cell lines. It inhibited the growth of the two cell lines studied in a dose-dependent manner. The IC(50) values were 12.3 microM (30h) for SKN-BE(2) and 20 microM (48 h) for GAMG, respectively. This action suggests that mitraphylline is a new and promising agent in the treatment of human neuroblastoma and glioma.

Published 16 March 2007 in Phytomedicine, 14(4): 280-4.
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