Chemoprevention study of luffa aegyptiaca mill (petola bantal) seeds ethanolic extract on breast cancer carcinoma cells (mcf-7)

Abstract

Breast cancer is a major health challenges in worldwide including Malaysia. It is the commonest malignancy among women. Although there are several of cancer treatments; however, these current treatments have consequences to the cancer patient such as recurrence of cancer, drug resistance and severe side effects. Discovery of alternative treatment which have minimal or almost no side effect is needed for cancer treatment. Traditional practitioners in India used the powder form of Luffa aegyptiaca seeds (LAS) in treating breast cancer. The old folks in Malaysia also used the powder form of LAS to treat the breast cancer patient. Thus, the present study is aim to determine the chemopreventive effect of LAS extract on breast carcinoma cell (MCF-7) by determining IC50 value, antiproliferative effect, apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest via flow cytometric analysis as well as molecular signalling pathway of related genes expression with regard to apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest by using qPCR analysis. MCF-7 cells were treated with various concentrations of ethanol extract of LAS. IC50 value of 80 μg/mL was determined after 72h of LAS treatment on MCF-7 cells and its anti-proliferative effect was assessed for 24, 48 and 96 hours using TBEA method. LAS extract demonstrated inhibitory activity in cell growth in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. The effect of LAS extract on apoptosis induction and cell cycle arrest indicated that it inhibits the growth of MCF-7 cells by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase. Meanwhile, gene expression analysis of qPCR assay revealed that LAS extract induced apoptosis through the down-regulation of Bcl-2, whereas Bax cytochrome c, caspase-9 and caspase-7 were up-regulated in MCF-7 cells. Cell cycle arrest was associated with down-regulation of CDK2 with subsequent up-regulation of p21 and cyclin E. Overall, the research finding provide new insight that Luffa aegyptiaca seeds (LAS) is a promising candidate of chemopreventive agents on MCF-7 cells.