Vatica diospyroides Symington type LS Root Extract Induces Antiproliferation of KB, MCF-7 and NCI-H187 Cell Lines

Purpose: To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of V. diospyroides Symington type LS root extract as a chemopreventive agent against various cancer cell lines.Methods: Acetone root extract was evaluated for in vitro cytotoxicity against KB (oral cavity cancer), MCF-7 (breast cancer), and NCI-H187 (small cell lung cancer), using Resazurin microplate assay (REMA). Toxicity against a representative normal cells, Vero (African green monkey kidney), was assessed using green fluorescence protein (GFP)-based assay.Results: V. diospyroides root extract showed significant cytotoxic effects on KB and MCF-7 cell lines in a dose-dependent manner with IC50 of 35.05 ± 1.45 and 36.63 ± 3.40 μg/mL, respectively. NCI-H187 was not significantly inhibited (≤ 19.39 % inhibition) at the concentrations tested. IC50 against Vero cells was outside the concentration range of 0.2 - 50 μg/mL.Conclusion: These results indicate that the root extract of V. diospyroides has in vitro cytotoxic effect on human oral cavity cancer and breast cancer cells. No toxic effect on normal cells was observed. Thus, the extract may provide bioactive substances for human cancer therapy.Keywords: Breast cancer, Oral cavity cancer, Lung cancer, Cytotoxicity, Vero cells, Vatica diospyroide

Cytotoxicity Screening of Plants of Genus Piper in Breast Cancer Cell Lines

Purpose: To examine whether seven species of plants of genus Piper possess anti-cancer effects.Methods: One normal breast and three breast cancer cell lines were used to test cytotoxic effects over a period of 72 h using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The dried plants were extracted with methanol and dichloromethane, and the effective extract isolated by crystallization, acid/base extraction and column chromatography techniques. Fragmented DNA was purified by phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol.Results: Methanol and dichloromethane extracts of Piper retrofractum, Piper betle, especially Piper nigrum, exhibited strong effect on MDA-MB-468. When the crude extract of P. nigrum was then separated by column chromatography, fraction D showed activity against both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 cells. Fraction DE that was isolated from D demonstrated a highly cytotoxic effect with IC50 values of 8.33 ± 1.27 and 7.48 ± 0.57 μg/ml on MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 cells, respectively. Furthermore, fraction DF exhibited a strong cytotoxic effect only on MCF-7 with IC50 value of 6.51 ± 0.39 μg/ml. DNA smears of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 cells treated with fraction DE and DF were observed within 7 days.Conclusions: These results indicate that the compounds isolated from P. nigrum, viz, DE and DF, have cytotoxic effect on breast cancer cell lines. These fractions could be promising agent for breast cancer treatment. Further studies on the isolation, structural and mechanism elucidation of the active compound are still needed being carried out.Keywords: Cytotoxicity, Breast cancer, P. nigrum, DNA fragmentatio