Korea: Falcarindoil disrupts neural stem cell homeostasis

The Antitumor Natural Compound Falcarindiol Disrupts Neural Stem Cell Homeostasis by Suppressing Notch Pathway

Tae-Jun Kim, Hyun-Sook Kwon, Mingyu Kang, Hyun Hee Leem, Kyung-Ha Lee and Do-Yeon Kim | Department of Pharmacology, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41940, Korea; toy5988@naver.com (T.-J.K.); alsrb5788@naver.com (M.K.), National Development Institute of Korean Medicine, Gyeongsan, Gyeongsangbuk-do 38540, Korea; sook4269@naver.com (H.-S.K.); ms_hee@naver.com (H.H.L.), Department of Cosmetic Science and Technology, College of Bio-industry, Daegu Haany University, Gyeongsan 38610, Korea, Department of Pharmacology, School of Dentistry, Brain Science and Engineering Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41940, Korea | 2018 | International Journal of Molecular Sciences; vol. 19, pp.3432 doi:10.3390/ijms19113432

Neural stem cells (NSC) are undifferentiated, multi-potent cells present in the nervous system. Differentiation of these cells is important for the development of the nervous system, where disruption in NSC is highly associated with several neurological diseases. Falcarindoil (FAD) is a polyacetylene that is used for treatment against breast and colon cancers, however there has been no research on the consequence of FAD in normal stem cells. In this study, levels of mRNA were studied using RT-qPCR on the MIC Real-Time Cycler to determine the effect of FAD on NSC. It was shown that FAD shows cytotoxicity on normal NSCs where it suppresses the notch pathway, allowing them to self-renew and proliferate without limit. FAD also reduced the stemness of NSCs, leading to excessive differentiation.