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Investigation of cellular mechanisms involved in apoptosis induced by a synthetic naphthylchalcone in acute leukemia cell lines

We have previously reported the cytotoxic effects of chalcone A1, derived from 1-naphthaldehyde, in leukemia cell lines. On the basis of these findings, the main aim of this study was to elucidate some of the molecular mechanisms involved in apoptosis induced by chalcone A1 toward K562 and Jurkat cells. In both cell lines, chalcone A1 decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential, increased the expression of Bax proapoptotic protein, and decreased the expression of Bcl-2 antiapoptotic protein (resulting in the inversion of the Bcl-2/Bax ratio), which indicates the involvement of the intrinsic pathway. In addition, chalcone A1 increased the expression of FasR in Jurkat cells, which also indicates the involvement of the extrinsic pathway in this cell line. The results also showed an increased expression of effector caspase-3 and cleaved PARP-1 and a decreased expression of IAP protein survivin, which are consistent with apoptotic cell death. The decreased expression of Ki67 suggests that the mechanism involved in cell death induced by chalcone A1 also involves a decrease in cell proliferation. In ex-vivo experiments, chalcone A1 reduced the cell viability of blast cells collected from eight patients with different types of acute leukemia, confirming the cytotoxicity results found in vitro. The results obtained so far are very promising and further studies need to be carried out so that chalcone A1 can be used as a prototype for the development of new antileukemia agents.