Lupeol Induced Apoptosis in Human Lung Cancer Cell Line: A Flow Cytometry Study

Some naturally occurring chemical agents in the human diet can reduce cancer risk such as, Lupeol (Lup-20(29)-en-3-b-ol), a pentacyclic triterpene principally present in fruits such as mango, olive, strawberry, and grapes, figs, etc. have been used to treat several ailments. Lupeol has been shown to have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cytoprotective properties along with antimutagenic and hypotensive activities in in vitro and in vivo systems. Several scientists have reported that lupeol exerts antitumor effects by triggering apoptosis in cancer cells aside from affecting normal cells.The topical application of lupeol on CD-1 mouse skin showed reduced 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13- acetate-induced tumor incidence by the inhibition of phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase (PI3K), Akt, Nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB) and activation of Inhibitory-kB kinase-((IKK-(α).However, in vitro studies on lupeol are limited illustrating an unclear mechanism by which it imparts apoptosis. Lupeol also know to induce apoptotic death of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells through mitochondria mediated pathway with significant decrease of Bcl-2 and increase of Bax and caspases.In our quest to dissect the molecular mechanism of lupeol induced apoptosis and inhibition of cancer cells growth, we investigated the regulatory effects of lupeol on activation of apoptotic machinery in human lung carcinoma A549 cells. It is noteworthy that, Lupeol at its effective therapeutic doses exhibit no toxicity to normal cells and tissues. Our study focuses to determine the cancer chemotherapeutics potential of Lupeol for the treatment of lung cancer.