Angelica decursiva has been used in Korean traditional medicine as an antitussive, an analgesic, an antipyretic and a cough remedy. However, the anti-cancer properties of Angelica decursiva have not yet been well defined. In our current study the cytotoxic activity of ethanol extracts of Angelica decursiva root (EEAD) and the mechanism of cell death exhibited by EEAD were examined in FaDu human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells. The cytotoxic effects of EEAD upon the growth of FaDu cells were examined with an MTT assay. In addition, the mechanism of cell death induced by EEAD was evaluated by DNA fragmentation analysis, immunoblotting and caspase activation measurements. EEAD induced apoptotic cell death in FaDu cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, as determined by MTT assay and DNA fragmentation analysis. Furthermore, the proteolytic processing of caspase-3, -7 and -9 was increased by EEAD treatment of FaDu cells. In addition, the activation of caspase-3 and -7 was detected in living FaDu cells by fluorescence microscopy. These results suggest that EEAD can induce apoptosis and suppress cell growth in cancer cells and may have utility as a future anticancer therapy.

PDT is an established cancer treatment modality. This can be attributed to the attractive basic concept of PDT; Combination of two therapeutic agents, a photosensitizing drug and light, which are relatively harmless by themselves but when combined, cause more or less selective tumor destruction. Hematoporphyrin-derived photosensitizers are known to be stable and highly efficient. In this study, we conducted a series of experiments to develop light-induced anticancer drugs against oral cancer cells. We tested the cytotoxicity of photodin by MTT assay and observed cell death pattern (apoptosis or necrosis) by hoechst 33342 and propidium iodide staining methods after PDT. IC50 value of photodin was 0.65 ug/ml. At higher doses of photodin ( > 7.8 ug/ml), cancer cells died exclusively from necrosis after PDT. By contrast, at IC50 value, photodin induced cancer cell to undergo apoptotic cell death. The induction begins approximately 6 hours after PDT. We investigated intracellular localization of photodin by oral cancer cell via confocal laser scanning microscopy. Oral cancer cells dual-stained with photodin and organelle-specific fluorescence probes (Mitotracker, Lysotracker, ER-Tracker) revealed that an intracellular fluorescence distribution was restricted to cytoplasmic compartments with no detectable fluorescence in the nucleus. Confocal images of cells containing photodin were overlapped with the mitochondria-specific fluorescence probe images of the same cells. These results demonstrated that photodin may play the role of a photosensitizer for oral squamous cancer cells without swelling and inflammation. Therefore, photodin-based PDT is a suitable treatment for oral cavity carcinoma patients.