Tillandsia usneoides Extract Decreases the Primary Tumor in a Murine Breast Cancer Model but Not in Melanoma

Abstract

The main limits of current antitumor therapies are chemoresistance, relapses, and toxicity that impair patient quality of life. Therefore, the discovery of therapeutic alternatives, such as adjuvants to conventional therapy that modulate the intracellular oxidation state or the immune response, remains a challenge. Owing to traditional medicine, several uses of plants are known, indicating a promising antitumor and immunomodulatory effect. We evaluated the effect of ethanolic extract of T. usneoides in vitro and in vivo in models of 4T1 breast cancer and B16-F10 melanoma. In vitro evaluations with both cell lines showed that the extract has cytotoxic activity and induces apoptotic cell death. However, its effect on ROS production and glucose uptake was opposite. In vivo, only in the 4T1 model, a significant decrease in tumor size was found in animals treated with the extract, accompanied by an increase in dendritic cells and activated CD8+ T cells, and a decrease in myeloid-derived suppressor-like cells (MDSC-LC) and Tregs in the tumor microenvironment. These results suggest that T. usneoides extract antagonistically regulates tumor metabolism of 4T1 vs. B16-F10, impacting the tumor microenvironment and effective antitumor immune response, leading to a reduction in 4T1 tumor size but not on B16-F10.

Piper nigrum extract suppresses tumor growth and enhances the antitumor immune response in murine models of breast cancer and melanoma

“…Phosphatidylserine (PS) externalization was assessed by flow cytometry using Annexin V (Molecular Probes, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and propidium iodide (PI) (Sigma, Saint Louis, MO, USA), as previously reported [ 18 , 19 ]. Briefly, 2 × 10 5 cells were treated with the IC 50 and IC 50 /2 of the P. nigrum extract (resuspended in ethanol) and IC 50 of doxorubicin (resuspended in DMSO) at 0.2374 µM for 4T1 or 0.022 µM for B16-F10 for 24 h. Flow cytometry analysis was performed on a FACSAria II-U (BD Biosciences, Washington, WA) and the data was analyzed using FlowJo v10.8.1 software (BD Life Sciences).…”

“…The production of ROS was evaluated using the probe 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H 2 DCFDA) (Sigma Aldrich, Saint Louis MO, USA) as previously described [ 19 ]. Briefly, 2 × 10 5 cells were plated and treated with the IC 50 and IC 50 /5 of the P. nigrum extract, IC 50 and IC 50 /5 of the P2Et extract (antioxidant control), IC 50 of doxorubicin (positive control, 0.2374 µM for 4T1 and 0.022 µM for B16-F10), DMSO (doxorubicin vehicle; 0.02%) or ethanol (extract vehicle, 0.02%) for 6, 12 and 24 h were used.…”

Petiveria alliacea Reduces Tumor Burden and Metastasis and Regulates the Peripheral Immune Response in a Murine Myeloid Leukemia Model

“…The P2Et standardized extract, used as anti-oxidant and anti-tumor control [10,63], was produced under good manufacturing practice (GMP) conditions and chemically characterized as previously described [64][65][66] The analysis was performed using an Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, CA, USA) 1260 Liquid Chromatography system, coupled to a quadrupole time-of-flight mass analyzer Q-TOF 6545 with electrospray ionization. Five microliters of the sample were injected into a C18 column (InfinityLab Poroshell 120 EC-C18, 100 × 3.0 mm, 2.7 µm) at 30 • C and eluted using a gradient composed of 0.1% (v/v) formic acid in type I water (Phase A) and 0.1% (v/v) formic acid in acetonitrile (Phase B) with a constant flow rate of 0.4 mL/min.…”

Design, Synthesis, and Antiproliferative Activities of 1,3‐Disubstituted 2‐Thioxoimidazolidin‐4‐one Derivatives against HepG2 and MCF‐7 Cells

“…[2] Intra-tumoral heterogeneity, medication resistance, toxic effects, and relapses make current therapy unsuccessful. [3] According to the most recent registries, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third cause of cancerrelated death worldwide and the sixth most frequently diagnosed malignancy. In 2020, there were 664,000 deaths worldwide due to HCC, with an estimated 724,800 new cases being diagnosed.…”

“…Another alarming statistic gleaned from these studies is that there will be 27.5 million additional cases of cancer annually by the year 2040 [2] . Intra‐tumoral heterogeneity, medication resistance, toxic effects, and relapses make current therapy unsuccessful [3] . According to the most recent registries, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third cause of cancer‐related death worldwide and the sixth most frequently diagnosed malignancy.…”