Abstract
Cancer has been recognized as one of the life-threating diseases. Breast cancer is a leading cause of mortality among women. In spite of current developments in the therapy and diagnosis of cancer, the survival rate is still less. Recently, plant-derived natural products gain attention as anticancer agents due to the nontoxic nature. Therefore, the aim of present study was to investigate the anticancer capacity of corn silk extract (CSE) on human breast cancer (MCF-7) and normal human mesenchymal (hMSC-TERT4) cells. Following 24 h treatment to corn silk extract, the cytotoxicity was assessed by MTT, NRU, and morphological assays. The oxidative stress markers (GSH and LPO), ROS production, MMP change, and expression of apoptotic marker genes (p53, Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-3, and caspase-9) were also studied in MCF-7 cells treated at 250 to 1000 μg/ml of CSE for 24 h. Our results showed that CSE decreased the cell viability and increased the apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. The level of LPO and ROS production was found significantly higher; however, GSH and MMP level was observed lower in CSE-treated MCF-7 cells. The real-time PCR data showed a significant upregulation in p53, Bax, caspase-3, and caspase-9 and downregulation in the mRNA expression of Bcl-2 genes in MCF-7 cells exposed to CSE. Collectively, the data from this study stated that corn silk extract induced apoptosis via the ROS-mediated mitochondrial pathway in MCF-7 cells.
Highlights
Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequently occurring cancer in females
Similar to MTT assay, the NRU assay revealed a concentration-dependent cytotoxicity in MCF-7. 100 μg/ml or higher concentrations of corn silk extract (CSE) were found to decrease the viability of MCF-7 cells (Figure 2(a)) by NRU assay exposed for 24 h whereas the viability of TERT4 cells was not reduced at similar concentrations of CSE (Figure 2(b))
The CSE at 500 and 1000 μg/ml reduced the number of MCF-7 cells, which become rounded and smaller in size
Summary
BC is the second most common cancer with two million new cases in 2018 [1]. According to the report published by Jemal et al [3], the worldwide incidence of breast cancer will keep increasing annually by 0.4%. The available chemotherapeutic drugs, paclitaxel and anthracyclines, are known to constrain cancer growth and induce cancer cell apoptosis [4]. These drugs are not sensitive to some of the patients and leads to the unwanted side effects to the healthy cells as well [5]. It is required to find a powerful, targeted, and nontoxic therapeutic agent to treat BC using natural products
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