Plumbagin sensitizes leukemia cells to cisplatin by promoting oxidative stress, apoptosis, and DNA damage
Yan-Ning Chen, Jai-Wei Lee, Tsu-Ming Chien, Chia-Hung Yen, Bing-Hung Chen, Hsueh-Wei Chang · 2026
Read Plumbagin sensitizes leukemia cells to cisplatin by promoting oxidative stress, apoptosis, and DNA damage by Yan-Ning Chen, Jai-Wei Lee, Tsu-Ming Chien, Chia-Hung Yen, Bing-Hung Chen, Hsueh-Wei Chang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13280767.txt.
Description
Yan-Ning Chen and colleagues published a 2026 cell study of plumbagin, a plant compound, as a partner drug that makes cisplatin hit leukemia cells harder while sparing healthy cells. They treated MOLT-4 leukemia cells and normal macrophages with the chemotherapy drug alone, plumbagin alone, or the pair at low doses for one day. The combination is aimed at acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the commonest childhood cancer, where gentler regimens would be valuable.
Cell survival fell to 45.5 percent under the combination, against roughly 76 to 81 percent for either drug alone, while normal macrophages stayed 93 percent viable. Two antioxidants reversed the effect, pointing to oxidative stress as the mechanism: the pair flooded leukemia cells with reactive oxygen species, drained their glutathione defenses, and collapsed mitochondrial voltage. Downstream, the death machinery switched on, with killer caspases activated and DNA damage markers climbing. The authors present the pairing as an oxidation-driven strategy worth developing.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yan-Ning Chen, Jai-Wei Lee, Tsu-Ming Chien, Chia-Hung Yen, Bing-Hung Chen, Hsueh-Wei Chang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 29 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |