Melanoma skin cancer: could chromone derivatives be efficient chemopreventors?

Melanoma is a highly metastatic tumour and its incidence has ranked 5 and 6 among the most common cancer afflicting both men and women. Melanoma cells have a diminished antioxidant potential compared to normal melanocytes, which leads to an accumulation of ROS [1]. 1,4-benzopyrone heterocyclic compounds are widely distributed in plants and are reported to exhibit several biological roles, including antioxidant and free radical scavenging [2], displaying a variety of pharmacological properties such as anti-inflammatory and antitumour [3]. The present study aimed to assess the response of the melanotic human skin melanoma (A375) cell line to treatment with 8 different benzopyran derivatives (eg. fisetin, luteolin and quercetin) in the concentration range 12.5 100μM, for 24, 48 and 72h incubation periods (using the MTT assay). Reversibility of the drug effect (after 3 days) was also tested. Concomitantly, similar experiments were carried out for non-neoplasic, non-immortalised, human foreskin fibroblasts (BJ). The results thus gathered allowed to conclude that the chromone derivatives are promising chemopreventive and/or chemotherapeutic agents towards melanoma, while having no considerable adverse effect against healthy cells.