Oxidative stress promotes cytotoxicity in human cancer cell lines exposed to Escallonia spp. extracts - Research Open Access

Q: What is the main concept behind “selective oxycution” in this study?

Selective oxycution refers to selectively killing cancer cells by inducing a redox imbalance in cancer cells compared with non-tumoral cells.

Q: How many Escallonia extracts were tested and from how many species?

Thirty-six plant extracts were tested, derived from four Escallonia species.

Q: Which extracts showed selective effects against specific cancer cell lines?

The hexane extract of E. pulverulenta stem was selective for HT-29, and the ethyl acetate extract of E. rubra stem was selective for PC-3.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Jiven

Standard cancer therapies often lack selectivity, motivating new approaches targeting cancer-cell redox regulation. This study characterizes previously unexplored Escallonia genus extracts and evaluates how they affect cancer redox balance, cytotoxicity, and activation of death pathways. Thirty-six extracts from four Escallonia species were assessed through phytoconstituent profiling, antioxidant capacity, GC-MS, redox-balance assays, and cytotoxicity tests on HEK-293T, MCF-7, HT-29, and PC-3 cells. Results identify selective extracts inducing unbalanced redox effects and selective cell death.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Background

Selective oxycution and ROS-driven strategies

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keywords

Jara-Gutiérrez et al. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (2024) 24:38 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-024-04341-4](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-024-04341-4) BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies RESEARCH Open Access Oxidative stress promotes cytotoxicityin human cancer cell lines exposed to Escallonia spp. extracts Carlos Jara-Gutiérrez 1,2, Luis Mercado3, Marilyn Paz-Araos 1,2, Carolyn Howard2, Mario Parraga 1, Camila Escobar 1, Marco Mellado4, Alejandro Madrid5, Iván Montenegro 1, Paula Santana6, Paola Murgas7, Cristina Jimenez-Jara8, Luis Guillermo González-Olivares9, Manuel Ahumada 10,11* and Joan Villena 1* Abstract Background Standard cancer treatments show a lack of selectivity that has led to the search for new strategies against cancer. The selective elimination of cancer cells modulating the redox environment, known as “selective oxycution”, has emerged as a viable alternative. This research focuses on characterizing the unexplored Escallonia genus plant extracts and evaluating their potential effects on cancer’s redox balance, cytotoxicity, and activation of death pathways. Methods 36 plant extracts were obtained from 4 different species of the Escallonia genus (E. illinita C. Presl, E. rubra (Ruiz & Pav.) Pers., E. revoluta (Ruiz & Pav.) Pers., and E. pulverulenta (Ruiz & Pav.) Pers.), which were posteriorly analyzed by their phytoconstituents, antioxidant capacity, and GC-MS. Further, redox balance assays (antioxidant enzymes, oxidative damage, and transcription factors) and cytotoxic effects (SRB, ∆Ψmt, and caspases actives) of those plant extracts were analyzed on four cell lines (HEK-293T, MCF-7, HT-29, and PC-3) . Results 36 plant extracts were obtained, and their phytoconstituents and antioxidant capacity were established. Further, only six extracts had EC50 values < 10 µg*mL− 1, indicating high toxicity against the tested cells. From those, two plant extracts were selective against different cancer cell lines: the hexane extract of E. pulverulenta´s stem was selective for HT-29, and the ethyl acetate extract of E. rubra´s stem was selective for PC-3 . Both extracts showed unbalanced redox effects and promoted selective cell death. Conclusions This is the first study proving “selective oxycution” induced by Chilean native plant extracts. Keywords Selective oxycution, Cancer cell lines, Chilean native plants, Redox unbalance *Correspondence: Manuel Ahumada [manuel.ahumada@umayor.cl](manuel.ahumada@umayor.cl)[ ](manuel.ahumada@umayor.cl)Joan Villena [juan.villena@uv.cl](juan.villena@uv.cl) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/l](http://creativecommons.org/l)icenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ([http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Jara-Gutiérrez et al. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (2024) 24:38 Page 2 of 13 Background Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a series of chemical species f

FAQs

What is the main concept behind “selective oxycution” in this study?

Selective oxycution refers to selectively killing cancer cells by inducing a redox imbalance in cancer cells compared with non-tumoral cells.

How many Escallonia extracts were tested and from how many species?

Thirty-six plant extracts were tested, derived from four Escallonia species.

Which extracts showed selective effects against specific cancer cell lines?

The hexane extract of E. pulverulenta stem was selective for HT-29, and the ethyl acetate extract of E. rubra stem was selective for PC-3.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Jiven