Potent antioxidant and anticancer activities of the methanolic extract of Calligonum comosum (L’Her) fruit hairs against human hepatocarcinoma cells

Abstract

Cancer is a devastating and aggressive disease that is globally ranked as the second-leading cause of deaths despite the relentless efforts being directed towards the discovery of novel chemotherapeutic drugs. Plants naturally produce a plethora of secondary metabolites that play a crucial role as effective therapeutic agents. Cancer treatment rely primarily on chemo- and radio-therapeutic strategies that suffers from known side effects. Recently, the strategy of controlling cancer progression by use of plant-derived natural products have extensively attracted research interests. In this study, the antioxidant and anticancer activities of the methanolic extract of Calligonum comosum (MeCc) fruit hairs were investigated. According to DPPH and ABTS assays, MeCc exhibited potent antioxidant capacity as it displayed significant free-radical scavenging activity. Results of the MTT cytotoxicity assay revealed that the MeCc exhibited potent anti-proliferation activity (IC 50 = 10.4 µg/ml) that is specific against human hepatocarcinoma cells (HepG2), as only marginally harmful effect against non-cancerous control BJ-1 cells was detected. Results of the RT-qPCR gene expression analyses indicated that MeCc resulted in significant overexpression of mRNA transcript levels of the pro-apoptotic genes p53 , caspase-3 and Bax , while downregulating the level of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic marker gene. Immunoblotting of the protein expression levels for the same markers showed similar pattern to that observed in RT-qPCR profiling. While the levels of p53, caspase-3 and Bax proteins exhibited significant increase, the protein level of Bcl-2 was significantly reduced. In conclusion, it is proposed that the observed specific anticancer activity of MeCc against HepG2 cells takes place via the engagement of apoptosis. This highlights the value of C. comosum as a source of potent natural anticancer agents and warrants further investigation to identify the active principals involved.

Apoptosis-mediated anti-proliferative activity of Calligonum comosum against human breast cancer cells, and molecular docking of its major polyphenolics to Caspase-3

“…Taken together, these results indicate that EECC inhibits growth of breast cancer cells, in part, by initiating apoptosis. These results are consistent with results of MTT assays ( Figure 1 ) and further validate previous reports that extracts of Calligonum comosum induce apoptosis in various in vitro human cancers ( Shalabi et al, 2015 ; Alehaideb et al, 2020 ; Alzahrani, 2021 ). Although slight but significant apoptosis was observed, necrotic cell death was far more profound.…”

“…It has been reported that Calligonum comosum exhibits antihyperglycemic activities, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer and anticancer activities in both rat and shrimp (El-Hawary and Kholief, 1990;Liu et al, 2001). In another study, Calligonum comosum exhibited both cytotoxicity and genotoxicity to human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells (Shalabi et al, 2015;Alzahrani, 2021) and human triple-negative MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells through the apoptotic pathway (Alehaideb et al, 2020). In HepG2 cells,extracts of Calligonum comosum have been reported to induce cytotoxicity through the apoptotic pathway (Shalabi et al, 2015;Alzahrani, 2021).…”

“…In another study, Calligonum comosum exhibited both cytotoxicity and genotoxicity to human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells (Shalabi et al, 2015;Alzahrani, 2021) and human triple-negative MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells through the apoptotic pathway (Alehaideb et al, 2020). In HepG2 cells,extracts of Calligonum comosum have been reported to induce cytotoxicity through the apoptotic pathway (Shalabi et al, 2015;Alzahrani, 2021). Thus, in this study it was clarified whether EECC inhibited growth of the breast cancer cells via apoptosis.…”

“…Calligonum comosum has also been shown to be effective against skin disorders and as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer and anticancer agents ( Liu et al, 2001 ; Badria et al, 2007 ; Riadh et al, 2011 ). Recently, the methanolic extract derived from fruit hairs of Calligonum comosum , collected from the Saudi desert, has been reported to exhibit strong antioxidant and anticancer properties against human hepatocarcinoma cells ( Alzahrani, 2021 ). All parts of Calligonum comosum were found to contain turpines triple antrakinont and kumarinat substances, flavonoids and alkaloids ( Alzahrani, 2021 ).…”

“…Recently, the methanolic extract derived from fruit hairs of Calligonum comosum , collected from the Saudi desert, has been reported to exhibit strong antioxidant and anticancer properties against human hepatocarcinoma cells ( Alzahrani, 2021 ). All parts of Calligonum comosum were found to contain turpines triple antrakinont and kumarinat substances, flavonoids and alkaloids ( Alzahrani, 2021 ).…”