Moringa oleifera leaves crude aqueous extract down-regulates of BRCA1, mta-1 and oncogenes c-myc and p53 in AsPC-1, MCF-7 and HTC-116 cells

Abstract

Moringa oleifera L. (Moringaceae) is a plant used for long time as a nutritional herb as well as for its various pharmacological activities including anticancer activity. Leaves, seed and bark contain active compounds such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, glucosinalates and isocyanates. Despite the extensive literature, the mechanism of action of active compounds still remains unknown. The plant leaves of wild and PMK-1 varieties of Moringa oleifera were extracted by hot water and crude extracts were assessed for their antiproliferative effect on AsPC-1, MCF-7 and HTC116 cells by MTT test. They were found to inhibit MCF-7, HTC116 and AsPC-1 cell proliferation at IC50 of 100, 125 and 240 μg/ml after 72 h of exposure, respectively. The extracts from PMK-1 variety did not show significant inhibition of cell proliferation. Wild type aqueous extract exerted its effect by down-regulation of p53 expression in all cell lines tested and by c-myc down-regulation in AsPC-1 cells. In addition, marker genes of cell lines such as breast cancer 1, early onset (BRCA-1) in MCF-7, metastasis-associated 1 (mta-1) in AsPC-1 and proliferation marker Ki-67 in HTC116 cells have also been down-regulated. The results suggest that polar compounds are involved in exerting these effects and further studies are needed to determine the precise mechanism of action of down-regulation of important genes for cell proliferation.