Interaction between natural fragrances and ABC-transporter acitivity.

12/10/2012

Fragrances and flavouring substances are defined by their action on the human sense. The flavouring effect of a substance is determined by its impact on membrane receptors of the human gustatory and olfactory systems. The partial or complete saturation of these receptors provides the physiologic response to a flavouring agent. Fragrances may be natural, such as balsams, essential oil, concretes or absolutes, and synthetic. Because of the widespread use of the fragrances in a large variety of consumer products, ranging from foods to perfumes to cosmetics to skin products, it is important to examine the effects for humans due to exposure to these materials. Among the potential risks of the fragrances exposure, the genotoxic effect is of particular interest, considering that DNA-damage, at gene or chromosomal levels, can result in adverse effects, such as cancer and germ cell alteration. Also, the potential protective properties of the fragrances are of interest because of their widespread exposure and the easy availability. In our previous studies, the mutagenic (to define the safety profile) and antimutagenic, (to investigate the protective properties) activity of two natural fragrances, β-caryophyllene and β-caryophyllene oxide, and a synthetic one, α-hexyl cinnamaldheyde, has been investigated. All substances showed to possess interesting antimutagenic activity in our experiments, carried out by the Ames test. Preliminary study demonstrated that β-caryophyllene, β-caryophyllene oxide and α-hexyl cinnamaldheyde reduce the mutagenic effect of CSC (condensate smoke cigarettes). Moreover, β-caryophyllene was able to inhibit ethyl methanesulfonate-induced clastogenicity in cultured human lymphocytes (Micronucleus assay). Moreover, a previous published paper (Legault and Pichette, 2010. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 59: 1643–1647) indicated that β-caryophyllene potentiated the anticancer activity of paclitaxel on MCF-7, DLD-1 and L-929 cell lines. Furthemore, β-caryophyllene oxide has shown to induce the apoptosis in PC-3 and MCF-7 cells (Park et al., 2011. Cancer Letters 312: 178–188). In line with these data, the aim of this research project is to study the potential anticancer activity of β-caryophyllene, β-caryophyllene oxide and α-hexyl cinnamaldheyde against different tumor cells. Also, the combination of these substances with anticancer agents will be investigated because they could work as synergist. Finally, the potential mechanism of action of these compounds will be examined.