Ovarian cancer cells with CD133+ phenotype is more resistant against Ngai Bun Boesenbergia pandurata extract than original ovarian cancer cells

Abstract

Introduction: Ovarian cancer is one of the most common cancers in women. Due to the difficulty in early detection and treatment of ovarian cancer, many research studies and clinical trials have been developed to discover more efficient therapies. Besides Western medicine, traditional medicine has gained increased interest as a research field with potential to lead to the production of marketable therapeutic products. With the diversity of tropical plants in Asia, traditional medicine has been very popular and has served as a traditional therapy for generations. The Ngai bun (Boesenbergia pandurata) root is used not only as a food spice but also in ethnomedicine. This study aimed to compare the anti-tumor activity of Boesenbergia pandurata root extract against ovarian cancer cells and CD133+ ovarian cancer cells that were enriched from the original ovarian cancer cells.
 Methods: Crude extract of Boesenbergia pandurata roots were prepared in two kinds of solvents (methanol and chloroform). The ovarian cancer cells OVP-10 were used in this study. The population of CD133+ ovarian cancer cells (CD133+OVP-10) were sorted from the OVP-10 cancer cells. Both OVP-10 cells and CD133+OVP-10 cells were treated with these crude extracts. Adiposederived stem cells (ADSCs) were used as control normal cells for all assays. The anti-tumor activity of extracts were evaluated based on the IC50 values.
 Results: Based on the IC50 index, the chloroform extract had an anti-tumor activity higher than that of methanol extract, on both OVP-10 and CD133+OPV-10 cells (IC50 of methanol and chloroform extracts were 330.1 +/- 16.9 ug/mL and 246.5 +/- 21.2 ug/mL, respectively, for OVP-10 cells; IC50 of methanol and chloroform extracts were 411.8 +/- 83.7 ug/mL and 307 +/- 9.2 ug/mL respectively, for CD133+OVP-10 cells). The results also showed that CD133+OVP-10 cells were more resistant to chloroform extract than were OVP-10 cells (307 +/- 9.2 mg/mL vs. 246.5 +/- 21.2 mg/mL, respectively, for CD133+OVP-10 vs. OVP-10 cells, p < 0.05).
 Conclusion: The chloroform extract of Boesenbergia pandurata roots displayed strong antitumor activity against ovarian cancer cells OVP-10 and CD133+OVP-10; the latter cells were found to be more resistant than the original ovarian cancer cells.