Chalcone HTMC causes in vitro selective cytotoxicity, cell-cycle G1 phase arrest through p53-dependent pathway in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells, and in vivo tumor growth suppression.

The present Letter identified 2'-hydroxy-2,3,4',6'-tetramethoxychalcone (HTMC) as a potent in vitro cytotoxic agent with selective activity against cell lines derived from human lung cancer. In A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells, HTMC caused G1 phase cell-cycle arrest. HTMC treatment also led to an inhibition of cell-cycle regulatory proteins phosphorylation of cdc2 (Tyr(15) and Tyr(161)) and Rb (Ser(795) and Ser(807/811)), which was accompanied by the accumulation of tumor suppressor genes p53 and p21. In addition, in vivo data demonstrated that HTMC act as a tumor growth suppressing agent.