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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Chem.
Sec. Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1505272
This article is part of the Research Topic Beyond Borders: Exploring Diverse Roles of Heterocyclic Compounds in Combatting Infections and Cancer View all 8 articles

Lotus seed (Nelumbinis semen) extract: anticancer potential and chemoprofiling by in vitro, in silico and GC-MS studies

Provisionally accepted
Mithun Rudrapal Mithun Rudrapal 1*Vijaya Jyothi Mallela Vijaya Jyothi Mallela 2Prasanth DSNBK Prasanth DSNBK 3Dr.Praveen Pasala Dr.Praveen Pasala 2Atul R Bendale Atul R Bendale 4Soumya Bhattacharya Soumya Bhattacharya 5Sahar M Aldosari Sahar M Aldosari 6Johra Khan Johra Khan 6
  • 1 Vignan's Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Guntur, India
  • 2 Raghavendra Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (RIPER), Anantapuramu, India
  • 3 SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
  • 4 Mahavir Institute of Pharmacy, Nashik, Maharashtra, India
  • 5 Guru Nanak Institute of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
  • 6 Majmaah University, Al Majma'ah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Lotus seeds, also known as Nelumbinis semen, has been utilized for over 7,000 years as vegetable, functional food and medicine. In this study, we primarily investigated the anticancer effects of lotus seed extracts, particularly of the methanolic extract (MELS) on cell proliferation inhibition, apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest in ovarian cancer cell lines. Further, we studied the phytochemical composition of the MELS by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Additionally, molecular docking was performed in order to substantiate the in vitro anticancer effect by in silico inhibitory study of human survivin protein. Our in vitro study demonstrated significant inhibition of SKOV3 (IC50: 79.73±0.91), A2780 (IC50: 100.18±2.42), SKOV3-CisR (IC50: 115.87±2.2) and A2780-CisR (IC50: 138.86±2.46) cells by MELS, compared to acetone, petroleum ether, n-hexane extracts, and the standard drug, cisplatin. Furthermore, MELS resulted in a substantial increase in apoptosis cell count to 78% in A2780-CisR cells and 82% in SKOV3-CisR cells, whereas a significant reduction in the G1 and G2/M phases of cells treated with MELS when compared to the control group. To identify the potential phytocompounds present in the MELS, we conducted GC-MS analysis, which led to the identification of 14 compounds. Molecular docking analysis revealed that oleic acid, stigmast-5-en-3-ol, phytol and glyceryl linolenate exhibited remarkable binding affinities of -6.1, -5.9, -5.8 and -5.6 kcal/mol, respectively against survivin. Our findings suggest that certain phytochemicals presented above found in MELS may have therapeutic potential for management of ovarian cancer.

    Keywords: Lotus seeds, methanolic extract, GC-MS, Chemoprofiling, anticancer, phytochemicals, molecular docking

    Received: 02 Oct 2024; Accepted: 22 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rudrapal, Mallela, DSNBK, Pasala, Bendale, Bhattacharya, Aldosari and Khan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mithun Rudrapal, Vignan's Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Guntur, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.