Tolerability assessment and anti cancer activity of the partially purified protease inhibitors from Soyabean (Glycine max) orally administered to rats

Abstract

Plant protease inhibitors (PI) are effective at preventing or suppressing carcinogen induced transformation in animal model systems. We report, partially purified PI from soy bean (SB) were prepared by regular process and it was evaluated for the acute and sub acute toxicity studies. Tolerability was assayed after fourteen days of treatment by dosing with an intragastric cannula. It was observed that there is no transient change in body weight, organ weights and blood markers, biochemical parameters with respect to the control group at the end of the study. There was no statistical difference was found in the liver, pancreas and renal tests. The SBPI was evaluated for the anti cancer and cyto-protective activities using MCF-7 and Vero cell lines. Interestingly, we observed that the SBPI was effective against the MCF-7 cells and protective against the Vero cells. Hence, the partially purified SBPI were able to induce the selective toxicity in cancer cells and non- toxic against the normal cells. To conclude, orally administered 200 mg/kg exhibit no toxicity in rats and it was well tolerated. SBPI are effective and safer to the milieu as they are less toxic to normal cells and can be extensively applied in biomedical sciences particularly in the cancer field.