The influence of phytochemicals on glioma: the role of cinnamic acid and silymarin

Parreira, Maria Inês Silva Martins

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/29560

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Authors

Parreira, Maria Inês Silva Martins

Advisor(s)

Almeida, Joana Filipa Correia de

Ferraz, Ricardo

Abstract(s)

Gliomas are one of the most predominant and frequent tumors of the central nervous system (CNS). These types of tumors are malignant and have a very heterogeneous etiology and a very aggressive nature, with a very poor prognosis and high mortality and morbidity rates. One of the main responsible for these previously mentioned characteristics are glioma stem cells (GSC), which have the ability to evolve into functional tumor cells that will then be able to invade adjacente tissues, thus increasing the degree of aggressiveness of gliomas. Due to the fact that gliomas have a highly heterogeneous character and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) has a very selective permeability (only certain molecules can cross it), currently existing therapies such as resection surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are unable to improve the prognosis of patients, glioma occurring again. Therefore, it is necessary to find new ways and new therapies that can improve the prognosis of patients suffering from this type of pathology, with as few side effects as possible. Silymarin and cinnamic acid are substances with anti-inflammatory, antioxidante properties and antimetastatic potential. In the present study, the effects of cinnamic acid and silymarin on metabolism, proliferation and apoptosis were examined in cells of the GL261 cell line. The cellular toxicity caused by these two biocompounds was evaluated using the MTT method. Migration of GL261 cells was assessed by making a single, vertical streak in the middle of each well of the plate. Treatments with silymarin revealed that there was an oscillation between the % of cellular toxicity and the increase in treatment concentration, and that there was an increase in cell migration. In relation to treatments with cinnamic acid, they revealed a slight decrease in the % of cellular toxicity, as the treatment concentration increased, and that, in the cell migration assay, there was no evident relationship of dependence between % cell migration and cinnamic acid concentration. The results obtained demonstrated that silymarin and cinnamic acid have the potential to, in the future, become one of the therapies to be considered in the treatment of glioma, due to their inhibitory and inducing effects on the apoptosis of GL261 cells.