Plumbagin (PLB) is an active secondary metabolite extracted from the roots of Plumbago
rosea. In this study, we report that plumbagin effectively induces paraptosis by triggering
extensive cytoplasmic vacuolation followed by cell death in triple negative breast cancer
cells (MDA-MB-231), cervical cancer cells (HeLa) and non-small lung cancer cells (A549)
but not in normal lung fibroblast cells (WI-38). The vacuoles originated from the dilation of
the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and were found to be empty. The cell death induced by …