Can Ginger (<i>Zingiber officinale</i>) Aqueous Crude Extract Induce Apoptotic Pathways in Drug-Resistance Acute Myeloid Leukemia: <i>In Vitro</i> Study?

Abstract

While chemotherapy remains to be one of the main using approaches in the clinical treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), multidrug resistance (MDR) is considered the major obstacle that limits the therapeutic efficacy. Nowadays, Herbal therapy as an adjuvant therapy has been used for many health problems. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is considering one of the promising herbal spices showing high therapeutic and preventive effects against many disorders specially cancer. In the current work, we focused on the role of ginger crude extract in fighting drug resistant AML. MTT assay showed a significant decrease in cell viability and clear cytotoxic effect on HL60/ADR and HL60 cell under the high concentrations (100 and 1000 μg/Ml) of ginger extract. The flow cytometry results showed a significant apoptotic cell death by ginger in HL60 and ADR/Hl60 and also confirmed by immunostaining of nucleus by DAPI which showed apoptotic nuclei. Our data clearly declared that the high concentration of ginger extract is promising anticancer drug by induction of apoptotic cell death in HL60/ADR cells especially in drug resistant AML.