Biological activities of Liquidambar orientalis: antibiofilm, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and miRNA expressions

Abstract

Due to its strong biological, pharmacological, and medical activities and rich chemical content, Liquidambar orientalis, known for its resinous exudate storax, has a widespread and well-established ethnopharmacological use. Although it is known that storax has anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant, wound-healing and other ethnomedicinal properties, the number of existing scientific studies is very limited. In this context, the aims of this study were to determine the antibiofilm activity of storax and its cytotoxic and apoptotic effects in A549 lung cancer cells. In addition, with this study, it is also possible to make a very comprehensive biological evaluation by determining the effect of storax on certain microRNA expressions. According to our results, L. orientalis storax decreases cell proliferation in A549 lung cancer cells and the IC50 value was determined at 31.5 µg/mL at 24h. Storax also induces apoptosis via upregulating CASP3, 8, 9, and Bax gene expression and downregulating Bcl-2 expressions in A549 cells. Furthermore, storax decreases the expression of miR-146a, miR-21, and miR-223, while increasing the expression of miR-155. Storax inhibits biofilm formation and reduces the preformed biofilm of microbial strains including Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 33862), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) and Candida albicans (ATCC 64548). The results suggest that storax has strong cytotoxic, apoptotic and antibiofilm properties and thus promising potential in medicine. © 2024 Institute of Botany and Botanical Garden Jevremovac, Belgrade