Page 42 - I. Chemical biology and drug discovery

[I. Chemical biology and drug discovery-22]

Anticancer activity of violacein against hepatocellular

carcinoma cells

Hee Jeong Shin¹, Ye Seul Choi¹˙, Hye Jin Jung¹˙*

¹Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering & Biotechnology, Sun Moon University, Asan 336-708, Republic of

Korea

Violacein is a deep violet indole derivative produced by a limited number of gram-negative bacteria species and
exhibits several biological properties such as antitumoral, antibacterial, and antioxidant activities. However, the

therapeutic effect and anticancer mechanism of violacein against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells have not

been studied. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of violacein on the growth of HCC cells. The
compound dose-dependently inhibited the growth of three different human HCC cells, including HepG2, Hep3B,
and Huh7. Moreover, violacein caused apoptosis by activating caspase‑9, caspase-3, PARP, and death receptor 5 in

Huh7 cells. Furthermore, we evaluated the effects of violacein on ROS generation, nuclear fragmentation,
mitochondrial membrane potential, and expression of Bcl-2 family and cell cycle regulators. In addition, violacein

downregulated the c-Met signaling pathway that has been implicated in HCC tumorigenesis and progression. These
results suggest that violacein might be a promising anticancer agent for HCC treatment.