Vitexin isolated from Prosopis cineraria leaves induce apoptosis in K-562 leukemia cells via inhibition of the BCR-ABL-Ras-Raf pathway.

Objectives: Leukemia is one of the severe cancer types all around the globe. Even though some chemotherapeutic drugs are available for treating leukemia, they have various side effects. As an alternative approach, herbal drugs are focused on current research to overcome leukemia. The present work was conducted to investigate the antileukemic mechanism of active phytochemical vitexin, which was isolated from ethno-medicine (Prosopis cineraria leaf) used by traditional healers of West Bengal, India.

Methods: Antiproliferative mechanisms of selected phyto-compound against K-562 cells were evaluated using cellular uptake, morphological changes, DNA fragmentation, mitochondrial membrane potential and signaling pathways analysis.

Key Findings: Vitexin exhibited cytotoxicity by reducing mitochondrial membrane potential (32.40%) and causing DNA fragmentation (84.15%). The western blotting study indicated inhibition of cell survival proteins (BCR, ABL, H-RAS, N-RAS, K-RAS and RAF) and expression of apoptotic proteins (p38, BAX and caspase-9) in leukemia cells upon treatment with vitexin.

Conclusions: Based on the results, presently investigated phyto-compound vitexin could be considered for developing safe and natural drugs to treat leukemia after conducting suitable preclinical and clinical trials.