Investigation of the Effect of Paclitaxel and Pycnogenol on Mitochondrial Dynamics in Breast Cancer Therapy

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of microtubule organization inhibitor Paclitaxel and natural standardized flavonoid extract from the bark of French maritime pine (pycnogenol) on mitochondrial dynamics in breast cancer cell lines which have non-metastatic (67NR) and high metastatic (4T1) potential. 67NR and 4T1 breast cancer lines were cultured in DMEM-F12 medium and passaged every 2–3 days. Experimental groups is control group, paclitaxel group and pycnogenol group. We used 0.5 µM for Paclitaxel and 20 µg for pycnogenol and cells incubated 24 h. Mfn-1 antibody for mitochondrial fusion, Drp-1 antibody for mitochondrial fission, Pink1 antibody for mitophagy were evaluated using indirect immunohistochemistry technique. The distributions of immunohistochemical intensities of primary antibodies were graded semi-quantitatively. Scores of staining intensities were graded as mild, moderate, strong and very strong statistics were comparatively evaluated by using H-score. It was found that the usage of paclitaxel and pycnogenol were helpful in terms of cancer therapy. Immunohistochemical studies showed that Mfn-1, Drp-1 and Pink1 expressions significantly changed experimental groups for mitochondrial dynamics. Therefore, our study revealed that mitochondrial dynamics may be a potential target to improve the antineoplastic activity of paclitaxel and pycnogenol in breast cancer in the future

The Effect of Pycnogenol and Paclitaxel on DNA Damage in Human Breast Cancer Cell Line

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancer type that affect the woman in worldwide. Paclitaxel is natural product and anticancer drug especially is used for treatment of ovarian, breast and lung cancer. Paclitaxel kills the cancer cells via DNA damage mechanism. Pycnogenol is a natural product that is extracted from the French maritime pine. It has anti-inflamatory, antioxidant, anti-cancer properties. Hovewer its anticancer activity is not known. In this experiment we aimed to study the effect of pycnogenol on breast cancer cell line compared to paclitaxel. We planned 3 experimental groups. One of them is control; the others are pycnogenol and paclitaxel group. The MDA-MB cells that found in pycnogenol group were exposed to 20 µg/mL pycnogenol, the cells in paclitaxel group were exposed to 0.5 µM paclitaxel for 24 h. At the end of the experiment to show the DNA damage, ATM, BRCA1, USP4, 53BC1 immunostainings were done. Control group showed the lowest expression for DNA damage marker, paclitaxel group was the highest expression for all DNA damage markers. The pycnogenol group showed higher expression compared to control group but lower expression from the paclitaxel group. As a result the pycnogenol may be a target product for anticancer treatment via DNA damage mechanism

Investigation of the Effects of Paclitaxel and Pycnogenol on Inflammatory Response (PTX3, BDNF, IGF2R) in Human Breast Cancer Cell Line

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women internationally and the second cause of cancer-related death. Paclitaxel is antitumorigenic agent used for several types tumors, especially in breast cancer treatment. Herbal-derived medicines have introduced as sources of novel drugs due to minimum systemic side effects. Pycnogenol is an extract of the French maritime pine bark and is a naturally occurring compound that is well-tolerated with a high oral bioavailability. It has been highly studied for the treatment of many diseases including cancer. In this study, we aimed to determine the effects of pycnogenol and paclitaxel in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We designed 3 experimental groups including control, pcynogenol and paclitaxel groups. Paclitaxel and pycnogenol were used in dosage of 0.5 µM and 20 µg/mL, respectively. After 24 h, immunostainings of PTX3, BDNF, IGF2R, the inflammatory proteins that play roles in tumorigenesis, were done. According to results, paclitaxel group was showed higher expression for all antibodies compared with control and pcynogenol groups. The pcynogenol group showed also higher expression than control group but not like paclitaxel group. As a conclusion, we suggest that pcynogenol may be as an antitumorigenic agent as paclitaxel or may be used with combined drug therapy