OBJECTIVE

To investigate the anticancer effect of against human breast cancer MCF-7 cell line.

METHODS

An experimental study was conducted in Multidisciplinary and Tissue Culture Laboratory, Aga Khan University in collaboration with Pharmacology Department of Bahria University Medical and Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan from January 2021 to June 2021. MCF-7 cells of Luminal-A breast cancer were seeded in 96-well plate and treated with methanol extract. After incubation, MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) dye was used for cell viability and cell proliferation assays to determine the number of dead and viable cells, and the absorbance was measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) plate reader. In cell viability assay, different doses of methanol extract were used to treat the MCF-7 (0.25, 0.5, 1, 3, 6, 12, 25, and 50μg/ml) cells. For apoptosis analysis, the cells were processed with 4´, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole fluorescent nuclear dye (DAPI) and were examined for fluorescence intensity and apoptotic cells. For cell proliferation assay and apoptosis the IC50 dose of 5.5μg/ml methanol extract was used.

RESULTS

The MCF-7 cells showed a significant reduction (p-value <0.01) in cell viability in the presence of all tested doses of methanol extract, except for the dose of 0.25μg/ml. The IC dose 5.5μg/ml of same extract also showed a significant reduction (p-value <0.01) in cell proliferation and apoptosis induction in MCF-7 cells.

CONCLUSIONS

methanol extract possesses very potent anticancer action against MCF-7 cells through cytotoxicity, reduction, and inhibition of cancer cells and by inducing apoptosis.