In vitro evaluation and molecular docking of QS-21 and quillaic acid from Quillaja saponaria Molina as gastric cancer agents

  • Sci Rep. 2020 Jun 29;10(1):10534. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67442-3.
Leda Guzmán  1 ,  Katherine Villalón  2 ,  María José Marchant  2 ,  María Elena Tarnok  2 ,  Pilar Cárdenas  2 ,  Gisela Aquea  2 ,  Waldo Acevedo  2 ,  Leandro Padilla  3 ,  Giuliano Bernal  4 ,  Aurora Molinari  5 ,  Alejandro Corvalán  6  7
Affiliations
  • 1. Laboratorio de Química Biológica, Instituto de Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile. [email protected].
  • 2. Laboratorio de Química Biológica, Instituto de Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
  • 3. Natural Response S.A, Av. Industrial 1970, Quilpué, Región de Valparaíso, Chile.
  • 4. Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cáncer, Departamento de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile.
  • 5. Laboratorio de Química Orgánica, Instituto de Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
  • 6. Laboratorio de Oncología, Departamento Hematología y Oncología, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
  • 7. Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases, Santiago, Chile.
PMID: 32601436 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-67442-3
Abstract

The cytotoxic mechanism of the saponin QS-21 and its aglycone quillaic acid (QA) was studied on human gastric Cancer cells (SNU1 and KATO III). Both compounds showed in vitro cytotoxic activity with IC50 values: 7.1 μM (QS-21) and 13.6 μM (QA) on SNU1 cells; 7.4 μM (QS-21) and 67 μM (QA) on KATO III cells. QS-21 and QA induce Apoptosis on SNU1 and KATO III, as demonstrated by TUNEL, Annexin-V and Caspase Assays. Additionally, we performed in silico docking studies simulating the binding of both triterpenic compounds to key proteins involved in apoptotic pathways. The binding energies (∆Gbin) thus calculated, suggest that the pro-apoptotic protein Bid might be a plausible target involved in the apoptotic effect of both triterpenic compounds. Although QA shows some antiproliferative effects on SNU1 cells cultured in vitro, our results suggest that QS-21 is a more powerful antitumor agent, which merits further investigation regarding their properties as potential therapeutic agents for gastric Cancer.

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