Chemotherapeutic potential of two gallic acid derivative compounds from leaves of Casearia sylvestris Sw (Flacourtiaceae)

Casearia sylvestris is a plant used in the treatment of several diseases, including cancer. Studies have shown that C. sylvestris presents an interesting antitumoral potential, due to the presence of casearins and some sesquiterpens with antitumoral activity. In this work, we tested the potential chemotherapeutic of two gallic acid-derived compounds isolated from C. sylvestris leaves: isobutyl gallate-3,5-dimethyl ether (IGDE) and methyl gallate-3,5-dimethyl ether (MGDE). We utilized two tumoral models: Ehrlich ascites tumor cells (EAT)/BALB/c mice and Lewis lung cancer cells (LLC1)/C57bl/6 mice. MGDE and IGDE increased the survival of mice inoculated with EAT cells and decreased the tumor volume in the LLC1 model, compared to control groups. Both compounds presented similar and low in vitro cytotoxicity against Ehrlich ascites tumor cells and did not present any significant toxicity against Lewis lung cancer cells. Since the direct in vitro activity against Ehrlich tumor and Lewis lung cancer cells was low, we investigated the effects of MGDE or IGDE treatment on the activity of total natural killer cells from Ehrlich ascites tumor-bearing mice, as a possible explanation for the mechanisms of these compounds in vivo. MGDE and IGDE improved NK cell cytotoxicity against Ehrlich ascites cells. As expected, tumor growth in non-treated mice markedly suppressed NK cell cytolysis while, IGDE completely reversed this effect, when mice were treated with 0.5 mg/kg dosages of these compounds for 4 days. The pharmacokinetic studies showed that IGDE remains in the organism for a long period of time, possibly explaining the higher compound efficiency.