Cynara scolymusaffects malignant pleural mesothelioma by promoting apoptosis and restraining invasion

// Claudio Pulito 1 , Federica Mori 1 , Andrea Sacconi 2 , Luca Casadei 3 , Maria Ferraiuolo 2 , Maria Cristina Valerio 3 , Raffaela Santoro 1 , Frauke Goeman 2 , Anna Maidecchi 4 , Luisa Mattoli 4 , Cesare Manetti 3 , Silvia Di Agostino 2 , Paola Muti 5 , Giovanni Blandino 2, 5 , Sabrina Strano 1, 5 1 Molecular Chemoprevention Unit, Molecular Medicine Area, Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy 2 Translational Oncogenomic Unit, Molecular Medicine Area, Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy 3 Department of Chemistry, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy 4 Aboca SpA Società Agricola, Sansepolcro, Italy 5 Department of Oncology, Juravinski Cancer Center, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Correspondence to: Sabrina Strano, e-mail: strano@ifo.it Keywords: mesothelioma, tumorigenicity, invasion, pathway, apoptosis Received: February 23, 2015 Accepted: June 12, 2015 Published: June 22, 2015 ABSTRACT Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a poorly treated neoplasia arising from the pleural mesothelial lining. Here we document that the leaf extract of Cynara scolymus exerts broad antitumoral effects both in vitro and in vivo on mesothelioma cell lines. We found that Cynara scolymus treatment affects strongly cell growth, migration and tumor engraftment of mesothelioma cell lines. Strikingly, dietary feeding with Cynara scolymus leaf extract reduces the growth of mesothelioma xenografted tumors similarly to pemetrexed, a commonly employed drug in the treatment of mesothelioma. In aggregate our findings suggest that leaf extract of Cynara scolymus holds therapeutic potential for the treatment of mesothelioma.