Dietary Administration of Scallion Extract Effectively Inhibits Colorectal Tumor Growth: Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms in Mice

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is a common malignancy and a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Diet is known to play an important role in the etiology of colon cancer and dietary chemoprevention is receiving increasing attention for prevention and/or alternative treatment of colon cancers. Allium fistulosum L., commonly known as scallion, is popularly used as a spice or vegetable worldwide, and as a traditional medicine in Asian cultures for treating a variety of diseases. In this study we evaluated the possible beneficial effects of dietary scallion on chemoprevention of colon cancer using a mouse model of colon carcinoma (CT-26 cells subcutaneously inoculated into BALB/c mice). Tumor lysates were subjected to western blotting for analysis of key inflammatory markers, ELISA for analysis of cytokines, and immunohistochemistry for analysis of inflammatory markers. Metabolite profiles of scallion extracts were analyzed by LC-MS/MS. Scallion extracts, particularly hot-water extract, orally fed to mice at 50 mg (dry weight)/kg body weight resulted in significant suppression of tumor growth and enhanced the survival rate of test mice. At the molecular level, scallion extracts inhibited the key inflammatory markers COX-2 and iNOS, and suppressed the expression of various cellular markers known to be involved in tumor apoptosis (apoptosis index), proliferation (cyclin D1 and c-Myc), angiogenesis (VEGF and HIF-1α), and tumor invasion (MMP-9 and ICAM-1) when compared with vehicle control-treated mice. Our findings may warrant further investigation of the use of common scallion as a chemopreventive dietary agent to lower the risk of colon cancer.

Oral Concentrated Grape Juice Suppresses Expression of NF-kappa B, TNF-α and iNOS in Experimentally Induced Colorectal Carcinogenesis in Wistar Rats

“…However, we found no significant difference in iNOS expression levels between groups despite the inhibitory effect of 2% grape juice administered before induction by AOM on the multiplicity of ACF. These results agree with other studies that were unable to detect a reduction of iNOS expression after treatment with different chemopreventive agents (Baldwin et al, 2001;Aviello et al, 2012;Arulselvan et al, 2012).…”

Identification of Bioactive Candidate Compounds Responsible for Oxidative Challenge from Hydro‐Ethanolic Extract of Moringa oleifera Leaves

“…The negative ion mass spectra were obtained from the LCQDECA ESI/MS detector on full ion scan mode (50 to 1000 amu) at a scan rate of 0.5 Hz. A data‐dependent program was used in the liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry analysis so that the most abundant ion in each scan was selected and subjected to MS/MS analysis (Arulselvan and others ). All chromatographic procedures were performed at ambient temperature and the corresponding peaks from HPLC–DAD–ESI–MS n analysis of the hydro‐ethanolic gradient extracts of M. oleifera leaves were identified by comparison with the literature data.…”

Dietary Non-nutritive Factors in Targeting of Regulatory Molecules in Colorectal Cancer: An Update

“…Dietary administration of scallion extract inhibits inflammation associated colon cancer by modulating the iNOS expression (Arulselvan et al, 2012). Luteolin, a bioflavonoid modulates the expression of iNOS and thereby controls the inflammation in AOM-induced colon cancer (Pandurangan et al, 2013a).…”