Breast cancer therapy using anticancer bioactive compounds derived from natural products as adjuvant treatment has gained recognition due to expensive and toxic conventional chemotherapeutic drugs. The whole plant of
Anastatica hierochuntica
(L.) (
A. hierochuntica
) has been investigated for its pharmacologically important anticancer properties but without categorizing the biological activities of the plant parts. We assessed the anticancer potential of different parts of
A. hierochuntica
(seeds, stems and leaves) and explored their mechanisms of action using the human breast cancer cell line, MCF-7. Currently, we investigated the antiproliferative effects of methanolic (MSD, MST, ML) and aqueous (ASD, AST, AL) extracts of
A. hierochuntica
plant parts on the MCF-7 cells using cell viability assays. Flow cytometry, Western Blot, DNA fragmentation, and gene expression assays were performed to evaluate apoptosis and cell cycle regulatory proteins. The results indicate that the methanolic and aqueous extracts decreased MCF-7 cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. The induction of apoptosis was observed in all the methanolic and aqueous-treated MCF-7 cells. The cell death process was confirmed by the visualization of DNA fragmentation and cleavage of the intrinsic apoptotic pathways, caspase-9 and caspase-3, the key enzyme causing apoptosis hallmarks. In addition, the most pro-apoptotic extracts, ASD and ML, up-regulated the expression of pro-apoptotic Bax, tumor suppressor TP53 genes and the cyclin inhibitor CDKN1A gene. In conclusion, of the aqueous and methanolic extracts of
A. hierochuntica
plant parts exerting antiproliferative effects through the induction of apoptosis in breast cancer MCF-7 cells, ASD and ML extracts were the most promising natural-based drugs for the treatment of breast cancer.
The tropical red mangrove Rhizophora mucronata (Lam.) has been widely used as an astringent, antiseptic, antibacterial, anti-ulcerogenic, and anti-inflammatory agent in traditional Oriental medicine. Cancer is a concept to be characterized by differentiating features, uncontrolled proliferation of cells, invasion of abnormal cells into healthy cells, and their spread through the bloodstream to vital organs. The key programmed cell death mechanism for silently killing unwanted and detrimental cells during embryonic development, tissue homeostasis, and immune regulation is apoptosis. Our research investigated the activation of apoptosis by the methanolic extract of R. mucronata and the expression of apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins. The cell cycle and apoptosis were observed by the Annexin V/PI-flow cytometry technique. The MTT test showed a strong cytotoxic effect on the cell lines of MCF-7. In MCF-7 cells, the sample demonstrated successful cell cycle arrest. More number of MCF7 cells get arrested in Sub G0/G1. In our study, FITC Rabbit Anti-Active Caspase 3 is used as a fluorochrome. It can be inferred from our study that good therapeutic potential against Human Breast derived diseases can be compared to the std control and the compound samples.
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