Xanthohumol, a hop-derived prenylflavonoid present in beer, impairs mitochondrial functionality of SW620 colon cancer cells.

Xanthohumol (XN) is a hop-derived prenylflavonoid and have been reported to exhibit anticancer properties in several types of cancer. It presents a great interest against colon cancer due to high exposure of this compound in this tissue. Metastatic SW620 cell line was treated with doses ranging from 0.001 to 10 µM of XN to assess their effects on cell viability and mitochondrial function. At low concentrations, XN had no effect on assays carried out, but high concentration of XN led to a decrease in cell viability. In addition, at 10 μM XN, it gave rise to an increase in ROS production accompanied by a decrease in OXPHOS complexes and sirtuin 1 protein expression levels. These results suggest that XN could act as a mitocan and impairs mitochondrial function.