Gedunin, a novel natural substance, inhibits ovarian cancer cell proliferation.

The discovery of more active therapeutic compounds is essential if the outcome for patients with advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer is to be improved. Gedunin, an extract of the neem tree, has been used as a natural remedy for centuries in Asia. Recently, gedunin has been shown to have potential in vitro antineoplastic properties; however, its effect on ovarian cancer cells is unknown. We evaluated the in vitro effect of gedunin on SKOV3, OVCAR4, and OVCAR8 ovarian cancer cell lines proliferation, alone and in the presence of cisplatin. Furthermore, we analyzed in vitro gedunin sensitivity data, integrated with genome-wide expression data from 54 cancer cell lines in an effort to identify genes and molecular pathways that underlie the mechanism of gedunin action. In vitro treatment of ovarian cancer cell lines with gedunin alone produced up to an 80% decrease in cell proliferation ( P P