TY - JOUR T1 - Antitumor Effect of Burchellin Derivatives Against Neuroblastoma JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 855 LP - 862 VL - 38 IS - 2 AU - MASAHIRO KURITA AU - TOMOMI TAKADA AU - NORIKO WAKABAYASHI AU - SATORU ASAMI AU - SHINICHI ONO AU - TAKETO UCHIYAMA AU - TAKASHI SUZUKI Y1 - 2018/02/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/38/2/855.abstract N2 - Background: Neuroblastoma is one of the most commonly encountered malignant solid tumors in the pediatric age group. We examined the antitumor effects of five burchellin derivatives against human neuroblastoma cell lines. Materials and Methods: We evaluated cytotoxicity by the MTT assay for four human neuroblastoma and two normal cell lines. We also performed analysis of the apoptotic induction effect by flow cytometry, and examined the expression levels of apoptosis- and cell growth-related proteins by western blot analysis. Results: We found that one of the burchellin derivatives (compound 4) exerted cytotoxicity against the neuroblastoma cell lines. Compound 4 induced caspase-dependent apoptosis via a mitochondrial pathway. The apoptosis mechanisms induced by compound 4 involved caspase-3, -7 and -9 activation and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage. In addition, compound 4 induced cell death through inhibition of the cell growth pathway (via extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2, AKT8 virus oncogene cellular homolog, and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3). Conclusion: Compound 4 exerted cellular cytotoxicity against neuroblastoma cells via induction of caspase-dependent apoptosis, and may offer promise for further development as a useful drug for the treatment of advanced neuroblastoma. ER -