Abstract
Artemisia, as one of the largest genera in the tribe Anthemideae of the Asteraceae comprises an important part of Iranian flora. While cytotoxic and apoptotic properties have already been reported for some species of the genus there is not any report on cytotoxic effects of A. ciniformis. Petroleum ether (40-60), dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, ethanol and ethanol-water (50:50) extracts of the aerial parts of A. cinformis were subjected to cytotoxic and apoptotic evaluations on two cancer human cell lines (K562 and HL-60) and on J774 normal cells. Among multiple extracts evaluated for cytotoxicity, dichloromethane (CH2Cl2) and petroleum ether (PE) extracts were shown to possess the highest anti-proliferative effects on HL-60 and K562 cells with IC50 values of 31.3 and 25.5 μg/ml respectively. Apoptosis induction verified by sub-G1 peaks was seen in flow cytometry histograms. Increase in the amount of Bax protein, formation of DNA fragments, and cleavage of PARP to 24 and 89 kDa sub units all confirmed induction of apoptosis by A. cinformis extracts. Taken together according to the result of the present study some extracts of A. cinformis could be considered as sources for natural cytotoxic compounds and further mechanistic and phytochemical studies are recommended to fully understand the underlying mechanisms of cancer cell death as well as identification of responsible phytochemicals.
Highlights
Increase in prevalence of cancer cases has been associated with the expansion of industrial, chemical and radioactive pollutants, the gap between human being and nature (Colditz and Wei, 2012; Fasinu and Orisakwe, 2013)
A. absinthium L. and A. vulgaris L. have long been implicated as medicinal herb, while some others are cultivated as ornamental species (Bora and Sharma, 2011)
The essential oils of A. capillaris and A. herbaalba are regarded as good candidates for further study, because they showed significant anti-proliferative activity against the human oral cancer and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (CEM) cell lines respectively (Cha et al, 2009; Tilaoui et al, 2011)
Summary
Increase in prevalence of cancer cases has been associated with the expansion of industrial, chemical and radioactive pollutants, the gap between human being and nature (Colditz and Wei, 2012; Fasinu and Orisakwe, 2013). Some species of the genus Artemisia have been utilized widely for food and drug purposes in both traditional and modern markets They have value as food additives for culinary purposes, antimicrobial or antiviral (Aniya et al, 2000; Kordali et al, 2005a; 2005b), antihepatotoxic, anti-malarial and antiinflammatory agents (Gilani et al, 2005; Bora and Sharma 2011; Abad et al, 2012). Dichloromethane fraction of A. ciniformis showed the highest cytotoxicity on the gastric cancer cell line in comparison with six other Artemisia species (Emami et al, 2010). Further study on A. ciniformis extracts showed the outstanding cytotoxicity of dichloromethane fraction against a wide range of cancer cell lines (Taghizadeh Rabe et al, 2011). As apoptosis is the desired pathway of cell death in cancer treatment we have designed this study to elucidate if apoptosis is involved in growth inhibitory activity of A. ciniformis extracts
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