Sterculia foetida Leaf Fraction Against Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Protein and 4T1 Breast Cancer Cells: In-Vitro and In-Silico Studies

Abstract

expression of MMP-9 can change due to genetic variations that affect the effectiveness of breast cancer treatment. 9 There has been many studies proving that chemical compounds in plants have cytotoxic activity. This is due to variations in the structures of the chemical compounds and the mechanisms for causing different cytotoxic effects. 10 This has led many researchers to conduct research to explore plants and chemical compounds that have anticancer effects. 11 S. foetida is a medicinal plant that has many pharmacological activities. 12 Mujumdar et al. 13 reported that the leaves of S. foetida contain luteolin, α-sitosterol, scutellarein, taraxerol, noctacosanol, and procyanidin, which have analgesic and antiinflammatory activity. Rajasekharreddy and Rani 14 reported finding cyclopropene fatty acid compounds, such as (2n-octylcycloprop-1enyl)-octanoic acid (I) from S. foetida seeds which have antibacterial, antiviral, and cytotoxic activities. In this study, we explored S. foetida leaves fractions of n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate n-butanol, and insoluble n-butanol as a possible source of compounds that have cytotoxic activities. The in vitro inhibitory activities of these fractions against MMP-9 protein and 4T1 cancer cells were further studied. The compounds contained in the most active fraction were identified using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS). The interaction of the compounds in the most active fraction against a protein target, MMP-9 involved in cancer pathogenesis was analyzed through molecular docking techniques.