A platinum(II) complex of liriodenine from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM): Cell cycle arrest, cell apoptosis induction and telomerase inhibition activity via G-quadruplex DNA stabilization

Liriodenine (L), an antitumor active ingredient from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Zanthoxylum nitidum, afforded a platinum(II) complex (1) of L, cis-[PtCl2(L)(DMSO)], which previously reported for its in vitro antitumor activity and intercalative binding with DNA. In this study, complex 1 was further discussed for its antitumor mechanism and structure–activity relationship, comparing with L and cisplatin. Towards the most sensitive BEL-7404 human hepatoma cells, complex 1 significantly induced cell cycle arrest at both G2/M phase and S phase. It suggests that double helix DNA is not the simplex intracellular target for 1. On the other hand, the BEL-7404 cells incubated with 1 and stained by Hoechst 33258 and AO/EB showed typical cell apoptosis in dose-dependent manner. The BEL-7404 cells incubated with 1 and stained by JC-1 were also characteristic for cell apoptosis on the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. Furthermore, the G-quadruplex DNA binding property of complex 1 was also investigated by spectroscopic analyses, fluorescent indicator displacement (FID) assay and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay. The results indicated that 1 stabilized the human telomeric G4-HTG21 DNA better than L. The telomerase inhibition ratio of 1 ((62.50 ± 0.03)%), which was examined by telomerase polymerase chain reaction-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (PCR-ELISA), was much higher than L ((21.77 ± 0.01)%). It can be ascribed to the better G4-HTG21 DNA stabilization of 1 than L. The results suggested that the nuclei, mitochondria and telomerase via G-quadruplex DNA stabilization all should be key targets for the antitumor mechanism of 1, in which the central platinum(II) played a key role.

Graphical abstractA platinum(II) complex of liriodenine significantly induced G2/M and S phase cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis on BEL-7404 cells via the potential mitochondrial pathway. It also exhibited higher telomerase activity inhibition than liriodenine, which should be attributed to its better stabilization on the human telomeric HTG21 G-quadruplex DNA.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide