Growth Suppression and Selective Disruption of F-Actin by α-Santalol in Human Melanoma Cells

α-Santalol, a major component of sandalwood oil, has been shown to have chemopreventive and antitumor effects in different pre-clinical cancer models. The present study was undertaken to determine the in vitro efficacy of α-santalol on SK-MEL2 human melanoma cells and an immortalized human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT).

In this study, we employed 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, Trypan blue, wound-healing, and annexin V apoptosis assays, as well as confocal microscopy for imaging F-actin rhodamine phalloidin/4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole-stained cells to investigate the cytotoxicity, cell viability, migratory potential and apoptotic cell death, respectively, of cells treated with different concentrations of α-santalol or dimethyl sulfoxide for different time periods.

Results showed that α-santalol treatment significantly reduced SK-MEL2 cell viability and wound-healing ability, while only affecting HaCaT cells at higher concentrations. α-Santalol treatment also disrupted cytoskeletal structure and F-actin in SK-MEL2 cells, whereas HaCaT cells were more resistant to this effect.

The selective growth-inhibitory and anti-migratory effects of α-santalol on human melanoma cells warrants future studies to systemically explore the mechanistic details involved.