The Cytotoxic and Apoptotic Effects of Scrophularia Atropatana Extracts on Human Breast Cancer Cells

Abstract

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy diagnosed in women both in developed and developing countries. Natural products especially those from herbal origin have high potential in producing drug components with a source of novel structures. The present study was designed to explore the cytotoxic effects and the cell death mechanism of Scrophularia atropatana extracts.Methods: MTT assay was employed to evaluate the cytotoxic activity of the extracts of S. atropatana on the MCF-7 as well as non-malignant cells. Furthermore, induction of apoptosis was evaluated by TUNEL assay, cell death detection ELISA, DNA fragmentation test, western blotting and Real Time PCR.Results: In vitro exposures of the MCF-7 cells with different concentration of S. atropatana extract significantly inhibited their growth and viability and induced apoptosis in the MCF-7 cells. Cleavage PARP protein, decrease in the mRNA expression levels of bcl-2 and increase expression of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 mRNA, highlights that the induction of apoptosis was the main mechanism of cell death. Moreover the expression study of Caspase-9 mRNA showed that, the extracts have induced apoptosis via intrinsic mitochondrial pathway.Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that dichloromethane extract of Scrophularia atropatana has an apoptotic effects and it can be developed as anticancer agents.

Chemical compositions, antimicrobial effects, and cytotoxicity of Asia minor wormwood (Artemisia splendens Willd.) growing in Iran

“…Furthermore, due to the adverse effects of anti-microbial chemical drugs, the use of plants with anti-microbial effects is recommended to reduce side effects. Different studies have revealed that herbal medicines have anti-proliferative and anti-microbial activities through different functional mechanisms [17]. In the current study, the cytotoxic and anti-microbial effects of MeOH extract and its SPE fractions of A. splendens on A549 and HT-29 cells and different microorganisms have been investigated.…”

In vitro anticancer activity of Scrophularia amplexicaulis extracts on MCF-7 and WEHI-164 cell line

“…Thus, it could be concluded that high level of bioactive compounds of S. amplexicaulis may be in DCM extract. The other Scrophularia species such as Scrophularia atropatana , Scrophularia oxysepala , and Scrophularia frigida have also been reported to suppress the growth of breast cancer cells generally in a time- and dose- dependent way (Valiyari et al, 2013[ 38 ]; Goldar et al, 2016[ 14 ]; Safarzadeh et al, 2017[ 33 ]).…”

Recent Advances in Targeting of Breast Cancer Stem Cells Based on Biological Concepts and Drug Delivery System Modification

“…Breast cancer is the most common malignancy and the 5th cause of cancer related death among the US women. 1,2 Breast cancer is a disease with histological, molecular and epidemiological heterogeneity which this heterogeneity creates big challenges to the development of effective cancer treatment. 3 There is a lot of biological diversity in the breast cancers that occur because of variations in transcriptional programs.…”