Antioxidant and Apoptotic Effects of an Aqueous Extract of Urtica dioica on the MCF-7 Human Breast Cancer Cell Line

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and one of the leading causes of death among women in the world. Plants and herbs may play an important role in complementary or alternative treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant and anti-proliferative potential of Urtica dioica. The anti oxidant activity of an aqueous extract of Urtica dioica leaf was measured by MTT assay and the FRAP method while its anti-proliferative activity on the human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) and fibroblasts isolated from foreskin tissue was evaluated using MTT assay. Mechanisms leading to apoptosis were also investigated at the molecular level by measuring the amount of anti and pro-apoptotic proteins and at the cellular level by studying DNA fragmentation and annexin V staining by flow cytometry. The aqueous extract of Urtica dioica showed antioxidant effects with a correlation coefficient of r 2 =0.997. Dose-dependent and anti-proliferative effects of the extract were observed only on MCF-7 cells after 72 hrs with an IC 50 value of 2 mg/ml. This anti proliferative activity was associated with an increase of apoptosis as demonstrated by DNA fragmentation, the appearance of apoptotic cells in flow cytometry analysis and an increase of the amount of calpain 1, calpastatin, caspase 3, caspase 9, Bax and Bcl-2, all proteins involved in the apoptotic pathway. This is the first time such in vitro antiproliferative effect of aqueous extract of Urtica dioica leaf has been described for a breast cancer cell line. Our findings warrant further research on Urtica dioica as a potential chemotherapeutic agent for breast cancer.

Modulatory Effect of anUrera AurantiacaExtract on Immune and Tumoral Cells During Inflammation

“…The UA exerted a biphasic effect on cell proliferation: at low concentrations, it increased cell proliferation at 24 h of cell culture, but at higher doses, an antiproliferative activity was observed. Despite its low antiproliferative effect on tumoral cells, the UA completely reverted the proliferative action of PGE 2 on these cells at 24 and 48 h. Results in other studies have demonstrated an antiproliferative effect of other species belonging to the Urticaceae family, for example, an aqueous extract of Urtica dioica was found to have a significant growth inhibitory effect on the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line in a dose-dependent manner; a methanolic extract of U. dioica exhibit cytotoxic activity on prostate cancer cells (Fattahi et al, 2013); a crude polysaccharide fraction of Urtica fissa was found to have a significant inhibitory effect on animal models of prostatic hyperplasia (Zhang et al, 2008). This is the first report on the effect of the UA on the proliferative rate of normal and tumoral lymphocytes, as well as on NO production by macrophages under inflammatory conditions.…”

“…Despite its low antiproliferative effect on tumoral cells, the UA completely reverted the proliferative action of PGE 2 on these cells at 24 and 48 h. Results in other studies have demonstrated an antiproliferative effect of other species belonging to the Urticaceae family, for example, an aqueous extract of Urtica dioica was found to have a significant growth inhibitory effect on the MCF‐7 human breast cancer cell line in a dose‐dependent manner; a methanolic extract of U . dioica exhibit cytotoxic activity on prostate cancer cells (Fattahi et al ., ); a crude polysaccharide fraction of Urtica fissa was found to have a significant inhibitory effect on animal models of prostatic hyperplasia (Zhang et al ., ).…”

Antimutagenic and antioxidant activity of a protein fraction from aerial parts ofUrtica dioica

“…Also, a weak sensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma cells to the treatment with UDHL 30 could be hypothesized. In contrast, an aqueous extract of U. dioica leaf (although it was not phytochemically characterized) has been shown to induce antiproliferative effects on breast cancer cells, so suggesting a potential usefulness of the plant in breast cancer chemotherapy (Fattahi et al, 2013).…”

Anti-Proliferative Activity and Apoptosis Induction of an Ethanolic Extract of Boesenbergia pandurata (Roxb.) Schlecht. against HeLa and Vero Cell Lines

“…Many chemoprevention and anti-cancer agents currently used have origin in plants ( Al-oqail et al, 2013;Hussain et al, 2015). Using natural products from plants or herbs have some andvantages, having low side effect and low cost and also being easily accessible in comparison to common treatment methods, may play an important role in the treatment of the cancer (Fattahi et al, 2013) One of the plants that potentially as chemopreventife and anti-cancer agent is B. pandurata. Many studies of this edible plant showed many bioactivity including cytotoxic and apoptotic induce against cancer cells line ( Kirana et al, 2006;Jing et al, 2010) In this study, extraction of B. pandurata rhizomes using maseration method with 90% ethanol produced semisolid extract with pinostrobin content of 0.49%.…”