Cytotoxic Potential of Ficus palmata Extracts on Lung Cancer Cell Lines (A549)

Mohammed Alsaweed

doi:10.9734/jpri/2021/v33i47b33110

Abstract

Cancer accounts for 10 million deaths globally whereas the treatments available either have several side effects or non-effective due to multi-drug resistant property of cancer cells for long term use. Therefore, it is utmost important to find safe therapeutic drugs that have cytotoxic potentials against cancer cells. Medicinal plants are believed to have lesser side effects with huge therapeutic efficacy. One such species is Ficus palmata which is known to have several medicinal properties and great antioxidant potentials. Earlier it was reported that methanolic extract of leaves (FPLM) and aqueous extract stembark (FPBA) of this plant have decent antioxidant properties. Therefore, the anticancer potentials of these plant extracts have been evaluated in addition of hydroxyl radical scavenging property. The results shown that FPBA represents higher antioxidant (IC50 value= 242.46±11.26 µg/ml) and anticancer effects against lung cancer (A549) cell lines (IC50 value= 69.74±2.12) whereas this plant extract have lower toxicity (IC50 value= 249.61±7.31) on normal cell lines (3T3-L1) which indicate that FPBA can be a potential therapeutic option for cancer and oxidative stress. The study concluded that the stem bark aqueous extract having therapeutic properties against lung cancer. It is to be recommended that the bioactive compound responsible for its therapeutic properties need to explore against cancer cell by evaluating various other parameters such as apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, and toxic effect on cell morphology.

Highlights

Cancer is the major health concern which accounts for around more than 70% of deaths globally specially in middle- and low-income countries
The results indicates that FPBA (F. palmata bark aqueous) extract (IC50 value= 242.46±11.26 μg/ml) showed significantly better hydroxyl radical scavenging potential than FPLM (F. palmata leaves methanolic) extract (IC50 value= 360.85±13.86 μg/ml), respectively in dose dependent manner (Table 1, Fig. 1)
It has been noticed that the effect of plant extracts was more deleterious on lung cancer cell lines (A549) than the normal pre-adipocytes cell lines

Summary

Introduction

Cancer is the major health concern which accounts for around more than 70% of deaths globally specially in middle- and low-income countries. According to a report the median time spent from the onset of symptoms to the initiation of treatment is around 138 days, this delay in diagnosis might be the hurdle for the early treatment of disease which can increase the mortality rate due to lung cancer [5]. Lung cancer mostly results from extensive use of smoking, tobacco exposure and decrease in physical activity which can increase the oxidative stress, atherosclerosis and induce the cancer [13]. To target these issues, there is a need to investigate for the better medicinal options to minimize the pathophysiological causes by reducing the oxidative stress and cure the lung cancer. There is a requirement to investigate for the novel therapeutics from natural resources due their easy availably, economic, and lower side effects in prolonged use [14]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion