Abstract
BackgroundPlant-based food medicine and functional foods have been consumed extensively due to their bioactive substances and health-beneficial effects. Vinegar is one of them due to its bioactivities, which confers benefits on human body. Our previous study has produced pineapple vinegar that is rich in gallic acid and caffeic acid via 2 steps fermentation. There are many evidences that show the effectiveness of these resources in inhibiting the proliferation and metastasis of the cancer cells through several mechanisms.MethodsFreeze-dried pineapple vinegar was evaluated for its in vitro apoptosis and metastasis inhibitory potential using MTT, cell cycle, Annexin V and scratch assays. The in vivo test using BALB/c mice challenged with 4 T1 cells was further investigated by pre-treating the mice with 0.08 or 2 ml/kg body weight of freshly-prepared pineapple vinegar for 28 days. The tumor weight, apoptotic state of cells in tumor, metastasis and immune response of the untreated and pineapple vinegar treatment group were evaluated and compared.ResultsFrom the in vitro study, an IC50 value of 0.25 mg/mL after 48 h of treatment was established. Annexin V/PI and scratch closure assays showed that pineapple vinegar induced 70% of cell population to undergo apoptosis and inhibited 30% of wound closure of 4 T1 cells. High concentration of pineapple vinegar (2 ml/kg body weight) led to the reduction of tumor weight and volume by 45%as compared to the untreated 4 T1-challenged mice. This effect might have been contributed by the increase of T cell and NK cells population associated with the overexpression of IL-2 andIFN-γ cytokines and splenocyte cytotoxicity. Furthermore, fewer instances of metastasis events were recorded in the pineapple vinegar treatment group and this could be explained by the downregulation of inflammation related genes (iNOS, NF-kB and COX2), metastasis related genes (iCAM, VEGF and MMP9) and angeogenesis related genes (CD26, TIMP1, HGF, MMP3, IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-2).ConclusionThe ability of pineapple vinegar to delay cancer progression portrayed its potential as chemopreventive dietry intervention for cancer therapy.
Highlights
Plant-based food medicine and functional foods have been consumed extensively due to their bioactive substances and health-beneficial effects
Pineapple vinegar inhibited the viability of 4 T1 cells in vitro Colorimetric tetrazolium reduction test (MTT) was carried out to study the cytotoxicity of pineapple vinegar against the 4 T1 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines
As the concentration of the pineapple vinegar increased to 0.32 mg/mL, the proportion of S phase increased to 26.37 ± 0.84% as compared to the control (23.66 ± 0.55%)
Summary
Plant-based food medicine and functional foods have been consumed extensively due to their bioactive substances and health-beneficial effects. There are many evidences that show the effectiveness of these resources in inhibiting the proliferation and metastasis of the cancer cells through several mechanisms. Plants have the potential to rival the conventional treatments in treating cancer as they contain active compounds, which will work well as therapeutic agents andthere are vast historical records detailing the use of plants preparation in folk medicine [5, 6]. The ability of the natural resources to act as the chemo-preventive agents without harming the healthy tissues opens up a new field to be researched on [7]. The anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects of some bioactive compounds present in plants were identified and proven clinically [8]. There have been initiatives to process them into supplements and health drinks, which will enable consumers to include them in their daily diet [9]
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