Evaluation of Protoprimulagenin A and Bonediol Isolated from Bonellia macrocarpa in Myeloid Leukemia Cell Lines

In this study, the effects of protoprimulagenin A and bonediol, two metabolites of Bonellia macrocarpa (Cav.) B. Ståhl & Källersjö, Primulaceae, were evaluated in human chronic (K562) and acute (HL60) myeloid leukemia cell lines. Protoprimulagenin A exhibited inhibitory effect due to non-apoptotic death, and bonediol induced death mainly by apoptosis in leukemia cell lines. This activity was supported by in silico molecular docking analysis showing interesting binding score with targets implicated in myeloid leukemia. These metabolites are promising for future research, since they present average inhibitory concentrations less than 50 μM in myeloid leukemia cell lines and do not affect normal mononuclear cells when they are used at the same concentration. Graphical abstract