Antiproliferative effects of two amides, piperine and piplartine, from Piper species
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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Cell Death Associated with Abnormal Mitosis Observed by Confocal Imaging in Live Cancer Cells
Published on: August 21, 2013
Daniel Pereira Bezerra1, Cláudia Pessoa, Manoel Odorico de Moraes
1Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Federal University of Ceará, P.O. Box 3157, 60430-270 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
Abstract:
The present work evaluated the cytotoxicity of piplartine {5,6-dihydro-1-[1-oxo-3-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-trans-2-propenyl]-2(1H)pyridinone} and piperine {1-[5-(1,3)-benzodioxol-5-yl)-1-oxo-2,4-pentadienyl]piperidine}, components obtained from Piper species. The substances were tested for their cytotoxicity on the brine shrimp lethality assay, sea urchin eggs development, 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay using tumor cell lines and lytic activity on mouse erythrocytes. Piperine showed higher toxicity in brine shrimp (DL50 = 2.8 +/- 0.3 microg/ml) than piplartine (DL50 = 32.3 +/- 3.4 microg/ml). Both piplartine and piperine inhibited the sea urchin eggs development during all phases examined, first and third cleavage and blastulae, but in this assay piplartine was more potent than piperine. In the MTT assay, piplartine was the most active with IC50 values in the range of 0.7 to 1.7 microg/ml. None of the tested substances induced hemolysis of mouse erythrocytes, suggesting that the cytotoxicity of piplartine and piperine was not related to membrane damage.
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