Abstract
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer causing death worldwide with metastasis and disease relapse being the major drawbacks in current treatments. Therefore, development of novel drugs is needed. Balsamin, a 28 kDa Type I ribosome-inactivating protein, is rich in the seeds of Momordica balsamina. In this study, the molecular mechanism and the possible effects of balsamin on the two key hallmarks of cancer were investigated. Firstly, the induction of apoptosis in human breast cancer MCF-7 and BT549 cells showed that balsamin-induced apoptosis involved increases in caspase-3 and caspase-8 activity, upregulation of Bax, Bid, and Bad, and downregulation of BCL-2 and BCL-XL. Furthermore, balsamin inhibited the proliferation of breast cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner with IC50 values of 24.53 and 32.79 µg/ml for MCF-7 and BT549 cells, respectively. Moreover, flow cytometric analysis revealed that balsamin induced S-/G-phase cell cycle arrest. Our studies show that balsamin has anti-tumor activity and could be used as a neutraceutical for the treatment of breast cancer.
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Abbreviations
- RIPs:
-
Ribosome-inactivating proteins
- RNA:
-
Ribonucleic acid
- ROS:
-
Reactive oxygen species
- MAP30:
-
Momordica antiviral protein 30
- MTT:
-
3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide
- DMEM:
-
Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium
- FBS:
-
Fetal bovine serum
- PBS:
-
Phosphate buffered saline
- ATCC:
-
American Type Culture Collection
- PI:
-
Propidium iodide
- ANOVA:
-
One-way analysis of variance
- CHOP:
-
C/EBP homologous protein
- GADD153:
-
DNA damage-inducible gene 153
- GRP78:
-
78 kDa glucose-regulated protein
- BiP:
-
Binding immunoglobulin protein
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Acknowledgements
PKA acknowledges the award of Postgraduate Research Scholarship from Deakin University, Australia. PKA thanks Tim Connor, Metabolic Research Unit, School of Medicine, Deakin University, for helping out with in vitro cytotoxic studies.
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Ajji, P.K., Binder, M.J., Walder, K. et al. Balsamin induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells via DNA fragmentation and cell cycle arrest. Mol Cell Biochem 432, 189–198 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-017-3009-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-017-3009-x