Anticancer activity of Licorice chalcone derivatives in Human Bel-7402 hepatocarcinoma cell lines

Objective To synthesize hydroxy-chalcone derivative 3-methyl-oxy-isoliquiritigenin(3-MO-ILG) within Isoliquiritigenin(ILG) as lead compound;and to study their anticancer activity in vitro.Methods The acid catalized reaction of aldolization was used for preparing the target compounds;human Bel-7402 hepatocarcinoma cells were treated with ILG and 3-MO-ILG,and cell viability and cellular apoptosis were determined by MTT method and flow cytometry,respectively;normal chang liver cells were used for testing their cytotoxicity.Results The two compounds(ILG and 3-MO-ILG) showed less cytotoxicity to change liver normal cells,however significant inhibitory activity towards Bel-7402 cancer cell proliferation,at the concentration range of 5～200 μg/mL,their inhibition activity reached 23.28%～80.01% and 41.96%～86.01%,respectively;the cellular apoptotic intensity was up to 85% and 93.5%.Conclusion Human Bel-7402 hepatocarcinoma cells have a relatively high sensitivity to the anticancer mechanism of the licorice chalcone derivatives,wich present a dose-dependent inhibition to hepatoma Bel-7402 cell proliferation and less cytotoxicity to normal hepatoma cells.Our works may provide an initial base for pharmacological screening of new bioactive compounds from licochalcone derivatives with antihepatocancer potency.