Anti-tumour potential and selectivity of caffeic acid phenethyl ester in osteosarcoma cells

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer, and metastasis is widespread decreasing the survival rate. The search for new therapeutic strategies has increased for phytochemicals due to their potential as antioxidants and anticancer properties. Thus, we evaluated the caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) and caffeic acid's (CA) anticancer properties on UMR-106 murine osteosarcoma cells. The IC₂₅ and IC₅₀ were 1.3 and 2.7 μM for CAPE and 91.0 and 120.0 μM for CA, respectively. This study shows the potential anticancer properties of CAPE and highlights how a phenethyl ester component addition can improve the pharmacological potency in relation to its precursor CA. Our results showed that CAPE was more efficient and selective in reducing the viability of tumor cells compared to the control osteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) (p < 0.05). In addition, CAPE was 44-fold (IC₂₅) and 70-fold (IC₅₀) more cytotoxic than CA. CAPE also decreased ROS generation and cell migration. In summary, CAPE was more selective for tumor cells, preserving normal ones, suggesting its potential role as an anticancer drug.