Antimetastatic activity isolated from Colocasia esculenta (taro)

Abstract

Breast cancer mortality is primarily due to the occurrence of metastatic disease. We have identified a novel potential therapeutic agent derived from an edible root of the plant Colocasia esculenta, commonly known as taro, that has demonstrable activity in a preclinical model of metastatic breast cancer and that should have minimal toxicity. We have shown for the first time that a water-soluble extract of taro (TE) potently inhibits lung colonizing ability as well as spontaneous metastasis from mammary gland-implanted tumors, in a murine model of highly metastatic ER, PR and Her-2/neu negative breast cancer. TE modestly inhibits proliferation of some, but not all, breast and prostate cancer cell lines. Morphologic changes including cell rounding were observed. Tumor cell migration was completely blocked by TE. TE treatment also inhibited prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis and downregulated cyclooxygenase (COX) 1 and 2 mRNA expression. We purified the active compound(s) to near homogeneity with antimetastatic activity comparable to stock TE. The active compound with a native size of approximately 25 kD contains two fragments of nearly equal size. The N-terminal amino acid sequencing of both fragments reveals that the active compound is highly related to three taro proteins; 12 kD storage protein, tarin and lectin. All are similar in terms of amino acid sequence, post-translational processing and all contain a carbohydrate-binding domain. This is the first report describing a compound(s) derived from taro, that potently and specifically inhibits tumor metastasis.

Characterization of the natural products in cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta) using GC–MS

“…suggests that it may possess anti-inflammatory, anemiagenic, antialopecic, anti-leucotriene-D4, immunostimulatory properties and also provides a biochemical rationale for the inhibition of breast and prostate cancer cell lines demonstrated by C. esculenta as reported by Kundu et al (2012) and for the hypocholesterolemic actions also demonstrated by C. esculenta as reported by Eleazu et al (2016). 9,12-Octadecadienoyl chloride, a linoleoyl chloride that constituted 0.77% of the extract was reported to possess antisecretory, choleretic, contraceptive, antispermatogenic and antitubercular properties (Kalaivani et al 2012).…”

“…Kundu et al (2012) reported in their studies that water soluble extract of C. esculenta demonstrated antimestatic activity by inhibiting the proliferation of some breast and prostate cancer cell lines. Their study further showed that tumour cell migration was completely blocked by the C. esculanta extract.…”

Itches—stimulating compounds from Colocasia esculenta (taro): bioactive-guided screening and LC–MS/MS identification

“…3 Another lectin-like protein from taros was reported to inhibit prostaglandin E2 synthesis, down-regulate cyclooxygenase 1 and 2 mRNA expression, potently inhibit lung-colonizing ability and spontaneous metastasis of mammary tumors. 25 Here, our results showed that taro lectin (Accession number: A5HMM7) can bind to surface receptors of DRG cells and alters the intracellular free calcium which may further induce itch or pain.…”

Utilization of cocoyam production technologies among women farmers in Abia State, Nigeria

“…It is nutritionally superior to yam and cassava in terms of its digestibility, contents of crude protein and essential minerals, such as Ca, Mg, and P (Chukwu, 2012). All parts of the cocoyam (corm, cornel, leave and flower) are edible and it is used in the treatment of diabetes, prevention of cancer and as food for the aged people, individuals and children (Kundu et al, 2012).…”