Exploring Amanita muscaria (L.) Lam.: Cytotoxic, proapoptotic and antiferroptotic effect of acetone extract on JAR choriocarcinoma cell line

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry has long focused on nature-derived biologically active compounds to address challenges in cancer treatment, particularly overcoming cancer cell resistance to programmed cell death, including apoptosis and ferroptosis. The cytotoxic effect of Amanita muscaria acetone extract on the JAR choriocarcinoma cell line was evaluated using MTT assay and analysis on two selected programmed cell death pathways. The putative ferroptotic effect was evaluated by measuring the main redox parameters and relative expression of key antiferroptotic genes. Our findings indicate that the IC50 of the acetone extract of A. muscaria was 168.96 (after 24 h) and 43.85 (after 72 h) μg/mL, inducing mainly a proapoptotic effect on choriocarcinoma cells. The extract also demonstrated an antiferroptotic effect. Both the proapoptotic and antiferroptotic effects were achieved regardless of the induction of oxidative stress. This is the first report on A. muscaria acetone extract indicating proapoptotic and antiferroptotic effects on choriocarcinoma cells.