English

Abstract

Many Nigerian plants have been hypothesized to have anticancer potentials. However, not many of them have been subjected to acceptable scientific evaluation for their potential anticancer effects. In this study, six of such plants were selected to evaluate the effects of their crude, hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate, detanninfied and tannin fractions for brine shrimp lethality assay and the most cytotoxic fractions of each plant were further tested on gene expressions of TP53 and retinoblastoma (Rb) genes in human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Gladiolus psittacinus (Gps), Icacina trichantha (Itr), Spilanthes filicaulis (Sfi),Curculigo pilosa (Cpi), Anthocleista djalonensis (Adj), and Tapinanthus bangwensis (Tba) medicinal plants were selected for this study. Crude extracts of 80% aqueous ethanol macerated plant materials were fractionated into hexane, chloroform and ethylacetate fractions. The resultant aqueous fractions were detanninfied to produce aqueous detanninfied fractions and tannin fractions. The 36 panel of plant fractions produced from all the plants were used for the study. From our findings, hexane fraction of S. filicaulis (Sfi-HF) showed the highest cytotoxic effect (LC50 21.30 µg/ml) on brine shrimps showing a low signal of p53 gene expression but a high intensity of Rb gene expression in MCF-7 cell lines. Moreso, crude extract of G. psittacinus (Gps-CE) showed a significant (P<0.05) increase in TP53 gene expression in comparison with the control group and also a high intensity of Rb gene expression. Our results demonstrates the modulatory potentials of Sfi-HF and Gps-CE on TP53 and Rb gene expressions in MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines suggesting a possible mode of action of Sfi-HF and Gps-CE amongst a panel of 36 extract fractions.   Key words: TP53 gene, retinoblastoma (Rb) gene, brine shrimps, cytotoxicity, gene expression, medicinal plants