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Background: Medicinal plants are traditionally used to prevent and treat various diseases, including cancer. Despite the development of advanced methods of treatment, cancer mortality is still increasing every year. Medicinal plants are one of the most important sources of anticancer agents. Objectives: The present study was conducted to evaluate the cytotoxic effects of the methanolic extracts of Datura innoxia petals, native to central and South America and distributed in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe, on the breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Materials and Methods: The petals were collected, cleaned, and powdered. The extraction was conducted using the maceration method and then filtered, centrifuged, freeze-dried, and kept at 4°C. The MCF-7 and HEK-293 cell lines were treated with the methanolic extract of D. innoxia petals at various dilutions. Cell viability was quantitated using the MTT assay after 48 and 72 hours. The methanolic extract of D. innoxia petals showed cytotoxic effects on the MCF-7 cell lines at 48 and 72 hours of incubation but did not affect the non-malignant cell line HEK-293. Conclusions: These findings indicate that the methanolic extracts of D. innoxia petals can act as a possible food supplement with anticancer effects and can be used after complementary tests.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Despite certain advances in cancer therapy, still there is considerable demand for developing efficient therapeutic agents. Nowadays, there is a rising interest in the use of natural-based anti-cancer drugs. In this study, the cytotoxicity of farnesiferol C and microlobin isolated from was investigated against MCF-7, HeLa and KYSE cancer cell lines. In addition, the mechanism of binding of these compounds to apoptotic proteins (Bax, Bak and Bcl-2) was analyzed by an method. We used MTT assay in order to assess the cytotoxicity of compounds against cancer cell lines. For study, the AutoDock 4 was adopted. According to the findings, in general, farnesiferol C showed significant cytotoxicity at higher concentrations (>50 µM) following 48 and 72 h incubation with the selected cancer cells; however, microlobin exhibited almost no activity at concentrations up to 100 µM. The results revealed that both compounds could bind to Bax more efficiently rather than to Bcl-2 or Bak proteins. The results obtained by our preliminary and studies suggest that these compounds might induce apoptosis through Bax activation; however further studies, either or are needed to clarify these activities.

Pterygium is a common ocular surface disease characterized by the abnormal epithelial proliferation, matrix remodeling, vascularization and the migration of the lesion. Although the etiology of pterygium is elusive, recent studies have focused on the role of limbal stem cells (LSCs) damage and effects of UVB. This study aimed to determine the expression levels of pluripotent markers of SOX2 and OCT4 in primary pterygium and normal conjunctiva. Using real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the SOX2 and OCT4 expressions were compared in primary pterygium and normal conjunctiva. This study assessed the correlation between SOX2 mRNA expression and OCT4 mRNA expression, as well as the association between the clinicopathological indices and both gene expression levels. The relative mRNA expression levels of OCT4 genes in primary pterygium were significantly reduced compared to the normal conjunctiva tissues. The association between OCT4 gene expression and the clinicopathological indices reported significant laterality (P = .004) and marginal growth activity indices (P = .063). The univariate correlation between the SOX2 and OCT4 expressions was statistically significant (P = .001). The present study emphasized the downregulation of pluripotent marker OCT4 genes in the pterygium. It is speculated that these results may predict a new avenue for exploring the role of stem cell deficiency in the development of pterygium.