Melicope ptelefolia leaf extracts exhibit antioxidant activity and exert anti-proliferative effect with apoptosis induction on four different cancer cell lines

Abstract

Background Melicope ptelefolia is a well-known herb in a number of Asian countries. It is often used as vegetable salad and traditional medicine to address various ailments. However, not many studies have been currently done to evaluate the medicinal benefits of M. ptelefolia (MP). The present study reports antioxidant, anti-proliferative, and apoptosis induction activities of MP leaf extracts.MethodYoung MP leaves were dried, powdered and extracted sequentially using hexane (HX), ethyl acetate (EA), methanol (MeOH) and water (W). Antioxidant activity was evaluated using ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radicals scavenging and cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assays. Anti-proliferative activity was evaluated through cell viability assay, using the following four human cancer cell lines: breast (HCC1937, MDA-MB-231), colorectal (HCT116) and liver (HepG2). The anti-proliferative activity was further confirmed through cell cycle and apoptosis assays, including annexin-V/7-aminoactinomycin D staining and measurements of caspase enzymes activation and inhibition.ResultOverall, MP-HX extract exhibited the highest antioxidant potential, with IC50 values of 267.73 ± 5.58 and 327.40 ± 3.80 μg/mL for ABTS and DPPH radical-scavenging assays, respectively. MP-HX demonstrated the highest CAA activity in Hs27 cells, with EC50 of 11.30 ± 0.68 μg/mL, while MP-EA showed EC50 value of 37.32 ± 0.68 μg/mL. MP-HX and MP-EA showed promising anti-proliferative activity towards the four cancer cell lines, with IC50 values that were mostly below 100 μg/mL. MP-HX showed the most notable anti-proliferative activity against MDA-MB-231 (IC50 = 57.81 ± 3.49 μg/mL) and HCT116 (IC50 = 58.04 ± 0.96 μg/mL) while MP-EA showed strongest anti-proliferative activity in HCT116 (IC50 = 64.69 ± 0.72 μg/mL). The anticancer potential of MP-HX and MP-EA were also demonstrated by their ability to induce caspase-dependent apoptotic cell death in all of the cancer cell lines tested. Cell cycle analysis suggested that both the MP-HX and MP-EA extracts were able to disrupt the cell cycle in most of the cancer cell lines.ConclusionsMP-HX and MP-EA extracts demonstrated notable antioxidant, anti-proliferative, apoptosis induction and cancer cell cycle inhibition activities. These findings reflect the promising potentials of MP to be a source of novel phytochemical(s) with health promoting benefits that are also valuable for nutraceutical industry and cancer therapy.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12906-017-1761-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Microarray gene expression profiling in colorectal (HCT116) and hepatocellular (HepG2) carcinoma cell lines treated withMelicope ptelefolialeaf extract reveals transcriptome profiles exhibiting anticancer activity

“…The induction of pro-apoptotic and downregulation of anti-apoptotic genes suggests that MP-HX promoted network signaling or transcriptome profile favoring apoptosis induction. This finding is consistent with our previous report, which demonstrated apoptosis induction of MP-HX on four different cancer cell lines ( Kabir et al, 2017 ).…”

“…For RNA extraction, the cells were seeded in 6 wells plate and incubated for 24 h. Following that, the cells were treated for 24 h with MP-HX at ∼IC 50 concentration of the cell lines, which was 60 µg/mL for HCT116 and 78 µg/mL for HepG2 ( Kabir et al, 2017 ). The control cells were treated with the vehicle (DMSO) used to dissolve MP-HX, and the final concentration of DMSO was 0.39 % v/v.…”

“…We have recently reported the anticancer and apoptosis induction activities of MP on colorectal, breast and liver cancer cell lines. The hexane leaf extract (MP-HX) appeared to show the most notable anti-proliferative activity against the four cancer cell lines tested ( Kabir et al, 2017 ). However, the underlying molecular mechanisms involved have yet to be fully elucidated.…”

Antheraea proylei J. sericin induces apoptosis in a caspase dependent manner in A549 and HeLa cells and caspase independent manner in PC3 cells

“…Our nding is the rst of its kind report on the anti-cancer property of sericin from A. proylei J. cocoons. studies with other agonists [18,19]. Our study is in agreement with earlier ndings of sericin from B. mori that SAP has anti-proliferative activity [10].…”

Antiproliferative Effects of Short-chain Fatty Acids on Human Colorectal Cancer Cells via Gene Expression Inhibition

“…The inhibition of cell proliferation was quantified using the WST-8 assay kit (Dojindo Molecular Technologies, Inc., Kumamoto, Japan) by spectrophotometrically measuring the absorbance (450 nm) of the RNA extraction. For RNA extraction, the cells were seeded into a 6well plate and incubated for 24 h. The cells were then treated for 24 h with each SCFA (15). Control DLD-1 cells were treated with the vehicle alone (DMSO, 0.39% v/v).…”