Abstract
Many plants produce secondary metabolites, known as flavonoids, which are thought to exhibit anti-cancer properties. Ginkgo biloba , a plant traditionally used in Chinese herbal medicine, is known to produce over 40 different secondary metabolites. Isoginkgetin, a biflavanoid from this species, has been demonstrated to be cytotoxic to different cancer cell lines. In this study, the anti-cancer effects of isoginkgetin were tested on A375 melanoma cells. XTT cell viability analysis revealed that isoginkgetin treatment resulted in a concentration dependent decrease in cell viability. To investigate whether apoptosis was induced in A375 cell treated with isoginkgetin, a western blot analysis was performed to detect PARP cleavage which is indicative of apoptosis. PARP cleavage was detected at all concentrations tested, with more pronounced cleavage observed with increasing isoginkgetin concentrations. To obtain insight into the potential mechanism of isoginkgetin induced apoptosis, we examined the involvement of the MAPK signaling pathway. We detected phosphorylated ERK in A375 cells treated with isoginkgetin which suggests that isoginkgetin might induce apoptosis of A375 cells through activation of the MAPK signaling pathway.