Anti-Proliferative Properties of Cornus mass Fruit in Different Human Cancer Cells.

Bahman Yousefi,Mozhgan Abasi,Mehran Mesgari Abbasi,Rana Jahanban-Esfahlan

doi:10.7314/apjcp.2015.16.14.5727

Abstract

There is a long standing interest in natural compounds especially those with a high polyphenolic content and high scavenging activity for hazardous free radicals. Cornus mas (CM) fruit is well known for its antioxidant activities; however, its toxicity against human cancers needs to be addressed. Here, we investigated selective anticancer effects of CM on different human cancer cells. A hydro-alcoholic extract of CM (HECM) was prepared and total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) were determined by colorimetric assays. Antioxidant activity was assessed with respectto DPPH radical scavenging. MTT assays were used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of different doses of CM (0, 5, 20, 100, 250, 500, 1000 μg/ ml) towards A549 (lung non small cell cancer), MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma), SKOV3 (ovarian cancer) and PC-3 (prostate adenocarcinoma) cells. Significant (P<0.05) or very significant (P<0.001) differences were observed in comparison to negative controls at all tested doses (5-1000 μg/ml). In all cancer cells, HECM reduced the cell viability to values below 26%, even at the lowest doses. In all cases, IC50 was obtained at doses below 5μg/ml. The mean growth inhibition was 81.8%, 81.9%, 81.6% and 79.3% in SKOV3, MCF-7, PC-3 and A549 cells, respectively. Altogether, to our best knowledge, this is a first study that evaluated toxicity of a HECM with high antioxidant activity in different human cancer cells in vitro. Our results indicated that a hydro-alcoholic extract of CM possesses high potency to inhibit proliferation of different tumor cells in a dose independent manner, suggesting that an optimal biological dose is more important and relevant than a maximally tolerated one.

Highlights

Cornus mas L. (Cornaceae family) known as the Asiatic and European cornelian cherry is a species of dogwood native to Southwest Asia and Southern Europe
MTT assays were used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of different doses of Cornus mas (CM) (0, 5, 20, 100, 250, 500, 1000 μg/ ml) towards A549, MCF-7, SKOV3 and PC-3 cells
Our results indicated that a hydro-alcoholic extract of CM possesses high potency to inhibit proliferation of different tumor cells in a dose independent manner, suggesting that an optimal biological dose is more important and relevant than a maximally tolerated one

Summary

Introduction

Cornus mas L. (Cornaceae family) known as the Asiatic and European cornelian cherry is a species of dogwood native to Southwest Asia and Southern Europe. (Cornaceae family) known as the Asiatic and European cornelian cherry is a species of dogwood native to Southwest Asia and Southern Europe. Cornelian cherry is an obviously growing dogwood species in Arasbaran (East Azerbaijan, Iran). Cornelian cherry fruits contain considerable amounts of anthocyanins (ANTs). Recent studies showed that the berries of C. mas contain five ANTs, identified by paper chromatography, spectrophotometric, and peroxide oxidation analysis as cyaniding 3-galactoside, pelargonidin 3-galactoside, cyanidin 3-rhamnosylgalactoside, delphinidin 3-galactoside, and pelargonidin 3-rhamnosylgalac toside (Du and Francis, 1937). A pharmacological study shown that ANTs of cornelian cherry are the combination of three compounds: cyanidin 3-O galactoside, delphinidin 3-O-galactoside, and pelargonidin 3-O-galactoside(Seeram et al, 2002). Cornus Mas (CM) fruit is well known for its antioxidant activities; its toxicity on human cancers is not studied. We investigated the selective anticancer effects of CM on different human cancer cells

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusion