In Vitro and In Ovo Assessment of Betulinic Acid Antimelanoma Effect

Although it recorded a breakthrough for the treatment of metastatic melanoma in the last decade, this disease remains a challenge in terms of finding an efficient treatment, reducing secondary resistance to treatment, and understanding the complexity of the molecular mechanisms involved in its development, progression and metastasis. This study aims to verify the multitarget effect of a natural compound, betulinic acid (BA), a pentacyclic triterpene, as antimelanoma agent by applying two experimental models: a human melanoma cell line—A375 and the chick chorioallantoic membrane model. The methods applied in this study were: MTT cell viability assay for cytotoxicity assessment and the chorioallantoic membrane assay (CAM) for antiangiogenic evaluation. The results indicated a significant decrease of A375 cells viability after a 72 h BA treatment even at the lowest concentration tested—1 µM (61.95% viable cells), with a calculated IC50 of 9.437 µM. In addition, BA inhibited not only the in ovo A375-induced tumor growth but also the angiogenesis on the primary site at 72 h post application. These data highlight the potential antimelanoma effect of BA by targeting the tumor cells via multiples pathways as inducing cell death and suppressing the angiogenic process, a must have for tumor development.