The in vitro investigation of cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of novel synthesized aryl (3-methyl-benzofuran-2-yl) ketone derivatives and vulpinic acid on normal and cancer cells

Benzofurans are of considerable interest by their widespread occurrence among natural products. Vulpinic acid is the one of the important seconder metabolites in lichens which are known to have many biological proporties. In this thesis, the cytotoxic, apoptotic and antimicrobial effects of three newly synthesized aryl (3-methyl- benzofuran-2-yl) ketone derivatives on HepG2, F2408 cells and some microorganisms have been investigated. As a result there was no inhibition of cellular and microorganismal growth. After then the effects of vulpinic acid?s cytotoxic, apoptotic and the expression levels of apoptosis related 84 genes on same cell lines were investigated. As a result it has been shown that vulpinic acid has toxic effect on both cells with time and dose dependent manner. The treatment of 200 µM vulpinic acid significantly increased apoptotic cell ratio on both cell types within 48 hours. Also the treatment of vulpinic acid up regulated of TP53, TNFRSF21, TRAF4, RIPK2, BIRC2, TNFRSF10 genes expression and down regulated of BAK1 gene expression of HepG2 cells. These results imply that vulpinic acid inhibits cell growth by up regulating of TP53 gene expression.