Dadzie Isaac, Avorgbedo Shaibu Adams, Appiah-Opong Regina, Cudjoe Obed
Department of Medical Laboratory Science, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
Department of Clinical Pathology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
Int J Microbiol. 2020 Feb 10;2020:8645691. doi: 10.1155/2020/8645691. eCollection 2020.
Many developing countries depend on herbal mixtures as the first line and cost-effective therapy for malaria. These mixtures with such curative tendencies may also be a source of toxicity to host cells. On the other hand, these mixtures may have anticancer potential activity characterized by cytotoxicity to cancer cells. The aim of the study was to determine the cytotoxic and antioxidant effects of five different antimalarial herbal mixtures. Five antimalarial herbal mixtures commonly used in Ghana (coded as STF, SMH, SMM, SGM, and STT) were purchased and freeze-dried. The dried samples were tested on human acute T-cell leukemia (Jurkat) and breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) cell lines. Cytotoxicity was assessed using the tetrazolium-based colorimetric (MTT) assay while antioxidant activity was determined using DPPH free-radical scavenging assay. Among the mixtures, SMM and SGM exhibited the strongest cytotoxicity towards Jurkat cells (IC values 59.17 g/ml and 49.57 g/ml, respectively), whereas STT showed the weakest cytotoxicity (IC = 244.94 g/ml). Cytotoxic effect of SMM was also strongest towards MCF-7 cells whilst the least cytotoxic sample was SGM (IC > 1000 g/ml). SMM had the highest antioxidant percentage (EC = 1.05 mg/ml). The increasing order of antioxidant percentage among the five herbal mixtures is SMM > SMH > STT > STF > SGM. The herbal mixtures may be potential sources of toxic agents to host cells. Therefore, further toxicity studies must be performed to safeguard health of the public. Interestingly, cytotoxicities exhibited by SMM and SGM suggest the presence of anticancer constituents in them which warrant further studies.
许多发展中国家依靠草药混合物作为疟疾的一线治疗方法且成本效益高。这些具有治疗倾向的混合物也可能是宿主细胞毒性的来源。另一方面，这些混合物可能具有以对癌细胞的细胞毒性为特征的抗癌潜在活性。本研究的目的是确定五种不同抗疟草药混合物的细胞毒性和抗氧化作用。购买了加纳常用的五种抗疟草药混合物（编码为STF、SMH、SMM、SGM和STT）并进行冷冻干燥。将干燥后的样品在人急性T细胞白血病（Jurkat）和乳腺腺癌（MCF-7）细胞系上进行测试。使用基于四氮唑的比色法（MTT法）评估细胞毒性，同时使用DPPH自由基清除法测定抗氧化活性。在这些混合物中，SMM和SGM对Jurkat细胞表现出最强的细胞毒性（IC值分别为59.17μg/ml和49.57μg/ml），而STT表现出最弱的细胞毒性（IC = 244.94μg/ml）。SMM对MCF-7细胞的细胞毒性也最强，而细胞毒性最小的样品是SGM（IC＞1000μg/ml）。SMM具有最高的抗氧化百分比（EC = 1.05mg/ml）。五种草药混合物中抗氧化百分比的递增顺序为SMM＞SMH＞STT＞STF＞SGM。这些草药混合物可能是宿主细胞毒素的潜在来源。因此，必须进行进一步的毒性研究以保障公众健康。有趣的是，SMM和SGM表现出的细胞毒性表明它们中存在抗癌成分，这值得进一步研究。
