Selective cytotoxicity and modulation of apoptotic signature of breast cancer cells by Pithecellobium dulce leaf extracts

Abstract

We report the potent and selective cytotoxicity of the crude aqueous leaf extract from the medicinal plant, Pithecellobium dulce toward the human breast cancer cells (MCF-7), but not the normal cells (MCF-10A). The cytotoxicity was found to be dose and time dependent, as 300 µg/mL of the extract decreased the cell viability to 50% (IC50 ) in 48 h. The induction of apoptosis in the breast cancer cells after treatment was confirmed by significant percentage (24.7%), of early apoptotic cells (AnnexinV (+) Propidium Iodide(_) ) in treated cells as compared to control cells (3.5%). We observed a significant upregulation in the mRNA expression of various pro-apoptotic gene such as Bax (21.1 folds), p21(14.4 folds), p53 (11.7 folds), TNF (10.2 folds) and fas (6.3 folds) after treatment as compared to untreated cells. On the other hand, the relative mRNA expression of anti-apoptotic genes such as Bcl-2, NF-KB and Cdk was reduced. The selective upregulation of pro-apoptotic gene and down regulation of specific anti-apoptotic genes could be the inducing factor for apoptotic cell death in MCF-7 cells after treatment with the herbal extract. We believe that our findings provide a foundation for further studies on this formulation as a potential therapeutic candidate for breast cancer. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:756-766, 2016.

LC-QTOF-MS Characterization, Antioxidant Activity, and In Vitro Toxicity of Medicinal Plants from the Tri-Than-Thip Remedy

“…In addition to normal cell testing, herbal components have also been found to inhibit cancer cells and have shown varying activities from toxic to safe. P. dulce bark and leaf lipophilic fractions were assessed for their cytotoxic activity using an MTT cell viability assay against two different cancer cell lines, namely, hepatocellular carcinoma and colon carcinoma cells, and the lipophilic extract was reported to possess significant cytotoxic activity in a colon carcinoma cancer line [ 40 ], and it was shown that there was cytotoxic potential of P. dulce leaf extracts on breast cancer cells (MCF-7 cell line) at 400 mg/mL [ 41 ]. In addition, a C. fistula methanol extract reduced prostate human cancer cell line viability in a dose-dependent manner in the MTT assay.…”

Cytotoxic Effect of the Alcoholic Extract of Conocarpus erectus Leaves on MDA-MB 231 and MCF7 Breast Cancer Cell Lines

“…Hence, it is very important to evaluate the plant extracts for discovering the compounds that may have a novelty to be drugs for treating the diseases. There are many extracts which record as having antibreast cancer effect that have been reported like Zingiber officinale [3], Morus lba L. [4], Angelica archangelica [5], Aralia elata [6], Pithecellobium dulce [7] Abelmoschus esculentus [8].…”

Anti-proliferating activity of some toxic and medicinal plants used by Wancho tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India

“…The herbal extracts, which are an excellent scavenger of free radicals, have been used to treat a variety of diseases. It contains a variety of phytochemicals that work together to combat diseases that are resistant to purified compounds (Sharma, 2016). Flavopiridol, Epipodophyllotoxin, Noscapine, Paclitaxel, Vindesine, Vinorelbine, Vinflunine, Pomiferin, Roscovitine, Sulphoraphane, Vincristine, and Vinblastin are few examples of well-known plant derived anticancer drugs (Greenwell and Rahman, 2015;Pereira et al, 2016, Basu andMaier, 2018).…”