Britannin, a sesquiterpene lactone, inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis through the mitochondrial signaling pathway in human breast cancer cells

Abstract

Induction of apoptosis in cancer cells can be a promising treatment method in cancer therapy. Naturally derived products had drawn growing attention as agent in cancer therapy. The main target of anticancer drugs may be distinct, but eventually, they lead to identical cell death pathway, which is apoptosis. Here, we indicated that britannin, a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Asteraceae family, has antiproliferative activity on the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 human breast cancer cells. Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) staining, Hoechst 33258 staining, and caspase-3/9 activity assay confirmed that britannin is able to induce apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 cells. The Western blot analysis showed that the expression of Bcl-2 was noticeably decreased in response to britannin treatment, while the expression of Bax protein was increased, which were positively correlated with elevated expression of p53. Moreover, britannin also increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation which in turn triggered the loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) and the subsequent release of cytochrome c from mitochondria into cytosol. Taken together, these results suggest that britannin inhibits growth of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells through the activation of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway and may potentially serve as an agent for breast cancer therapy.

Salidroside inhibits the growth of human breast cancer in vitro and in vivo

“…MTT assay. Cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay as previously described (24). Briefly, 1x10 4 cells/well were cultivated in 100 µl of culture medium in 96-well flat-bottomed plates (Corning Inc., Corning, NY, USA) and incubated with different concentrations of salidroside (0.01-50 µM) for 72 h, followed by the addition of 10 µl of MTT solution (5 mg/ml, dissolved in PBS; Sigma-Aldrich).…”

“…Intracellular changes in ROS were determined using the MGT Live Cell Fluorescent ROS Detection kit (MGT, Inc., USA) as described previously (24). Briefly, cells were plated in a 96-well plate (25x10 3 cells/well) and were treated with different concentrations of salidroside (0, 5, 20 and 40 µM) for 48 h. After treatment, the cells were further incubated with 20 µM 2' ,7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate in Hank's balanced salt solution (HBSS) at 37˚C for 30 min in the dark.…”

Butein suppresses cervical cancer growth through the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway

“…Cell viability. Cell viability was determined by MTT assay as previously described (31). Briefly, HeLa cells were cultured in 96-well plates and treated with different concentrations of butein (0-100 µM) for 72 h. Cell viability was determined via an MTT assay.…”

Application of new ZnO nanoformulation and Ag/Fe/ZnO nanocomposites as water-based nanofluids to considerin vitrocytotoxic effects against MCF-7 breast cancer cells

“…Measurement of 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) cytotoxicity assay Cell viability was determined by MTT assay as previously described (Hamzeloo-Moghadam et al 2015). Cells were seeded at 5 Â 10 3 cells/well in 5% CO 2 at 37 C in RPMI medium (containing 10% FBS, 100 units/ml penicillin and 100 lg/ml streptomycin) in 96-well plates.…”