Novel studies on Isolation, purification and characterization of dibenzonitro compound from Glycosmis pentaphylla (Retz.) DC. and effect in downregulating neuronal cancers

•The present work is the first report of the isolation of compound from plant, Glycosmis pentaphylla (Retz.) DC.•Letrozole, is a drug that has proved to show activity against proliferating human neuroblastoma cell, IMR 32.•It has been observed that, letrozole could take part in downregulating the expression of proliferating genes such as cyclin D1, PCNA and bcl-xl at both transcriptional and translational level.•Hence, this data might help to use letrozole in neuronal cancer studies. To isolate Letrozole from Glycosmis pentaphylla (Retz.) DC. and to determine its effect on regulating the proliferation, cell cycle distribution, apoptosis and key mechanisms in human neuroblastoma cell lines. Letrozole was isolated through column chromatographic technique and its effect was checked on human neuroblastoma cell lines, IMR 32. The effects of Letrozole on cell viability were measured by MTT assay, and the cell cycle distribution was determined by flow cytometry. The expression changes in mRNA of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), cyclin D1 and Bcl-xL were taken from real-time PCR analysis and the protein levels were detected by Western blotting. The results of the present study showed that Letrozole, isolated from leaves of G. pentaphylla could cause significant inhibitory effect on proliferation of IMR 32 cells in a dose dependent manner. Cell arrest was obtained at S phase with the treatment of Letrozole. Apart from this, the expression of PCNA, cyclin D1 and Bcl-xL were decreased both at mRNA and protein levels for the same treatment. Letrozole can inhibit proliferation, induce cell arrest and cause apoptosis in IMR 32 cell lines. The decreased expression of PCNA, cyclin D1 and Bcl-xL induced by Letrozole contributes to the above effects in vitro. This is the first report on the isolation of Letrozole from G. pentaphylla.