Abstract
Breast cancer cases in Indonesia have risen in alarming rate. Herbal medicines have been developed to complement conventional cancer therapy and to lessen the negative effects of the therapies. Phycocyanin, blue-green photosynthetic pigment from Spirulina platensis, becomes a potential candidate of herbal medicine for cancer therapy due to its capability to eliminate various cancer cell line on in vitro level. This research aimed to analyse the effectivity of phycocyanin to induce cytotoxic and apoptotic activity of T47D cells (breast cancer cell line). MTT assay was perform to measure IC50 value. Double-staining assay and flow cytometry were applied to visualize the appearance of apoptotic cells and to measure the percentage of apoptotic and necrotic cells. Result showed that the IC50 value of phycocyanin towards T47D cells is 1650 μg/mL. Phycocyanin was also proven to induce apoptosis at IC50 with the apoptosis percentage of 45.93%. This research presented different results from previous researches that used phycocyanin from saltwater Spirulina platensis. Based on the results of this study, phycocyanin has the potential to be developed as anticancer agent by inducing apoptosis.
Highlights
Breast cancer has become one of the most common cases of cancer nowadays
Various therapeutic methods have been developed to overcome the alarming rate of cancer cases in Indonesia
Results show that the viability of T47D cells decreases as the concentration of phycocyanin increases, indicating the decreasing trend of the cell viability (Figure 2)
Summary
Breast cancer has become one of the most common cases of cancer nowadays. In Indonesia, up to 21.4% of total cancer cases in women is occupied by breast cancer (World Health Organization, 2014). Various therapeutic methods have been developed to overcome the alarming rate of cancer cases in Indonesia. Currently-developed therapeutic methods work systematically by combining several pathways to eliminate cancer cells, such as induction of apoptosis, antiproliferation, and inhibition of normal cell mutation (Baig et al, 2016). Two of the most renowned modern conventional methods to cure cancer are chemotherapy and radiatiotherapy (Gotwals et al, 2017). Both chemotherapy and radiatiotherapy provide effective and rapid results. In order to reduce the dose of conventional therapy to minimize its side effects, herbal medicines are used as complementary therapy for cancer (Poonthananiwatkul et al, 2015)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Biosaintifika: Journal of Biology & Biology Education
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
