Nam Dia long, a Vietnamese folk formula, induces apoptosis in MCF-7 cells through various mechanisms of action

Abstract

BackgroundThe holistic approach of traditional medicine renders the identification of its mechanisms of action difficult. Microarray technology provides an efficient way to analyze the complex genome-wide gene expression of cells treated with mixtures of medicinal ingredients. We performed transcriptional profiling of MCF-7 cells treated with Nam Dia Long (NDL), a Vietnamese traditional formula, to explore the mechanism of action underlying the apoptosis inducing effect of this formula reported in a previous study.MethodsMCF-7 cells were treated with aqueous extracts of NDL at the IC50 concentration for 24, 36 and 48 h. Total RNAs at 24 h and 48 h were subsequently extracted, reverse transcribed and submitted to microarray expression profiling using the Human HT-12 v4.0 Expression Bead Chip (Illumina). Functional analyses were performed using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery and the Ingenuity Pathways Analysis. The expression level from selected genes at the three time points were assessed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR and Western blot.ResultsFifty-four and 601 genes were differentially expressed at 24 and 48 h of NDL treatment, respectively. Genes with altered expression at 24 h were mostly involved in cell responses to xenobiotic stress whereas genes differentially expressed at 48 h were related to endoplasmic reticulum stress, DNA damage and cell cycle control. Apoptosis of NDL treated MCF-7 cells resulted from a combination of different mechanisms including the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways, cell cycle arrest- and oxidative stress-related cell death.ConclusionNDL elicited a two-stage response in MCF-7 treated cells with apoptosis as the ultimate result. The various mechanisms inducing apoptosis reflected the complexity of the formula composition.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12906-017-2027-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Microarrays and NGS for Drug Discovery

“…Following microarray gene expression profile analysis, ocriplasmin, β-mercaptoethanol, and recombinant α 1-antitrypsin were identified as potential drugs for the treatment of papillary thyroid cancer [122]. Moreover, microarray profiling assisted in identifying the cytotoxicity mode of action involved in apoptosis of MCF-7 cells following treatment with Nam Dia Long (NDL), a Vietnamese traditional formula [123].…”