Sayed Amany Ahmed, Abdullah Mahmoud Salah, WalyEldeen Amr Ahmed, Sayed Rasha Mohamed Samir, Gabre Refaat M, Ibrahim Sherif Abdelaziz, Hassan Hebatallah
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt.
Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt.
BMC Complement Med Ther. 2025 Sep 2;25(1):325. doi: 10.1186/s12906-025-05061-z.
Cancer remains a significant global health challenge. Several plant-derived compounds have garnered the attention of cancer research for their anticancer effects. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is one of the top nutritious legumes with promising chemoprotective effects. We previously demonstrated that Cicer arietinum extract (CAE) has antitumor activity in vitro. Therefore, herein, we aimed to extend our findings and investigate CAE's preventive and therapeutic antitumor effects in vivo using a murine Ehrlich solid carcinoma (ESC) model.
Thirty-six female mice were divided into six groups: healthy controls, untreated ESC-bearing mice, CAE pre-treated groups (low, moderate, and high doses), and CAE post-treated group administered after tumor establishment. Tumor size, oxidative stress markers, antioxidant enzyme activities, and the expression of apoptotic (Casp3)- and pyroptotic (Gsdmd)-related genes were assessed. Finally, the immunohistochemical staining for the anti-apoptotic Survivin expression was assessed across different mice groups.
Our data indicate that pre-treatment with moderate and high doses of CAE, as well as post-treatment, significantly inhibited tumor growth by more than 40% relative to untreated ESC-bearing controls. Histopathological analysis showed notable improvements in muscle tissue structure in CAE-treated samples. Mechanistically, CAE exerted its chemopreventive and therapeutic effects via the alleviation of oxidative stress by a significant enhancement of the antioxidant enzyme activities and increased Gpx4 mRNA expression, accompanied by a reduction of MDA and NO levels. Furthermore, CAE attenuated survivin expression, while dramatically boosting the expression of apoptotic Casp3 and pyroptotic Gsdmd markers, particularly in the post-treatment group.
These findings suggest that CAE is a promising anticancer agent with protective effects against ESC.
癌症仍然是一项重大的全球健康挑战。几种植物来源的化合物因其抗癌作用而受到癌症研究的关注。鹰嘴豆（Cicer arietinum）是最具营养的豆类之一，具有良好的化学保护作用。我们之前证明了鹰嘴豆提取物（CAE）在体外具有抗肿瘤活性。因此，在本文中，我们旨在扩展我们的研究结果，并使用小鼠艾氏实体癌（ESC）模型研究CAE在体内的预防和治疗抗肿瘤作用。
将36只雌性小鼠分为六组：健康对照组、未治疗的荷ESC小鼠、CAE预处理组（低、中、高剂量）和肿瘤形成后给药的CAE后处理组。评估肿瘤大小、氧化应激标志物、抗氧化酶活性以及凋亡（Casp3）和焦亡（Gsdmd）相关基因的表达。最后，评估不同小鼠组中抗凋亡Survivin表达的免疫组织化学染色。
我们的数据表明，与未治疗的荷ESC对照组相比，中、高剂量的CAE预处理以及后处理均显著抑制肿瘤生长超过40%。组织病理学分析显示，CAE处理的样本中肌肉组织结构有明显改善。从机制上讲，CAE通过显著提高抗氧化酶活性和增加Gpx4 mRNA表达来减轻氧化应激，从而发挥其化学预防和治疗作用，同时降低MDA和NO水平。此外，CAE减弱了Survivin的表达，同时显著提高了凋亡Casp3和焦亡Gsdmd标志物的表达，特别是在后处理组中。
这些发现表明，CAE是一种有前景的抗癌剂，对ESC具有保护作用。
