Thymoquinone (TQ) is a monoterpene isolated from the oil of Nigella sativa seeds. The aim of this work was to evaluate the cytotoxic effects induced by TQ and its impact on the migration and invasion potential of 786-O human renal cancer cells. These cells were exposed to TQ (1-100 μM) for 24 and 48 h and cell viability assessed using the Crystal Violet and MTS assays. TQ treatment clearly decreased cell viability in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. TQ exposure moderately increased intracellular ROS levels and co-incubation with reduced glutathione markedly increased cell viability. Moreover, the effect of TQ in the cell cycle distribution was evaluated using flow cytometry, and an increase in the sub-G1 population was observed, especially at 30 μM, along with an increase in the % of apoptotic cells. TQ did not show genotoxic effects at a non-cytotoxic concentration (1.0 μM). At this concentration level, TQ significantly decreased the collective migration of 786-O cells, whereas it had no effect in chemotactic migration. TQ also decreased the invasiveness potential of 786-O cells, as evaluated by the transwell invasion assay. Overall, these results suggest that TQ presents an anticancer potential in the context of renal cancer, warranting further investigation.

中文翻译：

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多终点方法揭示了在人肾癌细胞中胸腺醌的潜在体外抗癌特性。

胸腺醌（TQ）是从紫花苜蓿种子油中分离出来的单萜。这项工作的目的是评估TQ诱导的细胞毒性作用及其对786-O人肾癌细胞迁移和侵袭潜能的影响。将这些细胞暴露于TQ（1-100μM）中24和48小时，并使用Crystal Violet和MTS分析评估细胞活力。TQ处理以浓度和时间依赖性方式明显降低了细胞活力。TQ暴露适度增加了细胞内ROS水平，并且与减少的谷胱甘肽共孵育显着提高了细胞活力。此外，使用流式细胞术评估了TQ在细胞周期分布中的作用，并观察到亚G1群体的增加，尤其是在30μM时，随着凋亡细胞百分比的增加而增加。在非细胞毒性浓度（1.0μM）下，TQ没有显示出遗传毒性作用。在此浓度水平下，TQ显着降低了786-O细胞的集体迁移，而对趋化迁移没有影响。如通过transwell入侵测定所评估的，TQ还降低了786-O细胞的侵袭潜能。总体而言，这些结果表明TQ在肾癌的背景下具有抗癌潜力，值得进一步研究。