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Daucosterol (DS) is a plant phytosterol which is shown to induce oxidative stress mediated apoptosis in various cancer cell lines. However, the molecular mechanism underlying its cellular action has not been documented against Non- Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). Therefore, we attempted to decipher the mechanisms responsible for DS-induced anti-proliferation on human NSCLC cells. The present study showed, DS strongly inhibits the growth of A549 cells after 72 h time point with an IC 50 value of ∼20.9 μM. Further DS elicits increased reactive oxygen species level and promote intrinsic apoptotic cell death on A549 cells as evidenced by increased expression of caspase-3, caspase-9, Bax, PARP inactivation, cytochrome-c release, and diminished expression of bcl-2 protein. DS failed to display its apoptotic actions upon pretreatment with the reactive oxygen species inhibitor NAC (N-acetyl cysteine). Indeed, apoptotic signal which was enhanced through p53/p21 activation and knockdown of p53 expression also moderately affected the DS induced apoptosis. In addition, DS preferentially inhibited the cell growth of p53 wild-type NSCLC cell lines than the mutant p53 models. Further, we show that inhibition of Thioredoxin (TrxR) redox system is principally associated with DS induced oxidative stress mediated apoptotic cell death on A549 cells. Moreover, we also demonstrated that DS stably interacted with serine residues in TrxR active sites. The obtained results confirmed that the anti-proliferative mechanism and increased reactive oxygen species level of DS was associated with down-regulation of TrxR1 pathway which triggers the p53 mediated intrinsic apoptotic mode of cell death in NSCLC cells. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Thioredoxin redox system has been implicated as an intracellular anti-oxidant defense system leading to reduction of cellular oxidative stresses utilizing electrons from NADPH. From high content screening of small molecules targeting the system, gliotoxin, a fungal metabolite, was identified as an active compound. Gliotoxin potently accelerates NADPH oxidation and reduces H2O2. The compound reduces H2O2 to H2O by replacing the function of peroxiredoxin in vitro and decreases intracellular level of H2O2 in HeLa cells. The anti-oxidant activity of gliotoxin was further validated H2O2-mediated cellular phenotype of angiogenesis. The proliferation of endothelial cells was inhibited by the compound at nanomolar range. In addition, H2O2-induced tube formation and invasion of the cells were blocked by gliotoxin. Together, these results demonstrate that gliotoxin is a new small molecule targeting thioredoxin redox system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]