Potential chemotherapeutic effects of diosgenin, zoledronic acid and epigallocatechin-3-gallate on PE/CA-PJ15 oral squamous cancer cell line

•Antineoplastic effect of diosgenin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate and zoledronic acid on oral cancer proposed.•These drugs present different chemotherapeutic effect in an oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line.•These drugs could be a promising adyuvant or treatment therapy for oral squamous cell carcinoma.

ObjectiveTo study the potential chemotherapeutic effects of Diosgenin, zoledronic acid and Epigallocatechin-3-gallate on oral squamous cell cancer (OSCC).Materials and methodsCell viability, migration, apoptosis and cell cycle evaluation assays were performed in order to assess the effects of different doses of Diosgenin, zoledronic acid and Epigallocatechin-3-gallate on the PE/CA-PJ15 cell line.ResultsDoses of 100 μM of diosgenin or zoledronic acid reduced cell viability significantly after 72 h (p < 0.001), as well as increasing apoptosis (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 respectively). All three agents reduced cell migration and altered the cell cycle, each at a different phase of the cycle.Conclusionwhile DG and ZA reduced cell viability, increased apoptosis, inhibited cell migration and modified the cell cycle in different ways, EGCG only modified the cell cycle and reduced cell migration. These agents present a potential chemotherapeutic effect on PE/CA-PJ15 OSSC cell line, which have to be further studied.