probing the anticancer and apoptotic effects of kahweol diterpenoid: experimental and theoretical validation in ovcar-3 human ovarian cancer cells using various bioassays and in silico molecular docking

The incidence of ovarian cancer in china is on the rise, and it remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality among chinese women. the main objective of this research work was to probe the anticancer and apoptotic effects of kahweol in ovcar-3 human ovarian cancer cells using various standard bioassays and then theoretically validate the experimental results. mtt assay was used to study the impact of kahweol on ovcar-3 cell viability. fluorescence microscopy using dapi, ao/eb, and flow cytometry using annexin-v were used as staining agents for studying kahweol’s effects on cell apoptosis. effects on cell migration and cell invasion were studied by transwell assay. autodoc-vina using kahweol as the target ligand and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (vegfr-2), platelet-derived growth factor receptor (pdgfr), rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma (raf), and topoisomerase-i as the target proteins were used to study molecular interactions. results indicate that kahweol-induced selective cell viability inhibitory effects against cancer cells in comparison to the normal human ovarian surface epithelialv (ose) cells. as kahweol dosage increased, red/yellow fluorescent cells (indicative of apoptosis) increased, and dapi indicated considerable chromatin condensation and altered cellular morphology. kahweol-treated cells had a larger proportion of early and late apoptotic cells than untreated cells, according to flow cytometry. kahweol also inhibited ovcar-3 cell migration and invasion, suggesting antimetastatic potential. kahweol binds to critical aminoacids in target proteins showing binding scores of -7.4, -8.6, -8.0, and -8.6 to vegfr-2, pdgfr, raf, and topoisomerase-i, respectively, thereby blocking its expressions. the docking results were validated by calculation of root mean square fluctuation (rmsf) values which showed stability for most of the legend-receptor interactions. in conclusion, this study sums up that kahweol exerts anticancer, apoptotic, and inhibition of cell migration and cell invasion and can be considered to be a potent anticancer drug candidate provided further in-depth studies are carried out.