Antiproliferative and apoptotic effects of caffeic acid on SK-Mel-28 human melanoma cancer cells

Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is an extremely aggressive cancer presenting low survival and high mortality. The vast majority of patients affected by this disease does not respond or show resistance to the chemotherapeutic drugs, which makes the treatment ineffective. In this sense, the necessity for the development of new agents to assist in CM therapy is extremely important. One of the sources of great interest in this search are compounds of natural origin. Among these compounds, caffeic acid has demonstrated a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities as well as antitumor effects in some types of cancer. Therefore, the objective of this work was to investigate the possible antitumor effect of caffeic acid on the SK-Mel-28 cell line, human CM cells. Cells were cultured in flasks with culture medium containing fetal bovine serum, antibiotic, and antifungal, and maintained in ideal conditions. Cells were treated with 25 µM, 50 µM, 100 µM, 150 µM and 200 µM of caffeic acid and dacarbazine at 1 mg/mL. We verified the effect on cell viability and cell death, apoptosis, cell cycle, colony formation and gene expression of caspases. Results showed a decrease in cell viability, cell death induction by apoptosis, inhibition of colony formation, modulation of cell cycle and alterations in gene expression of caspases after caffeic acid treatment. These results suggest an antitumor effect of the compound on SK-Mel-28 cells. This study provides original information on mechanisms by which caffeic acid may play a key role in preventing tumor progression in human melanoma cells.