Identification of plant extracts sensitizing breast cancer cells to TRAIL

Betulinic Acid Acts in Synergism with Imatinib Mesylate, Triggering Apoptosis in MDR Leukemia Cells

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disease, characterized by the presence of the oncogene BCR-ABL. Imatinib mesylate (IMA) is the first-line treatment for CML, and some treatment resistance has been reported. Natural products are rich sources of bioactive compounds with biological effects, opening a possibility to alter cell susceptibility to drugs such as imatinib. Herein, we evaluated the interference of betulinic acid and ursolic acid in glycoprotein P (P-gp) activity and the possible synergistic effect when associated with IMA by the Chou-Talalay method. Ursolic acid presented an IC50 of 14.0 µM and 19.6 µM for K562 and Lucena 1, respectively, whilst betulinic acid presented an IC50 of 8.6 µM and 12.5 µM for these cell lines. Evaluation of the combination of terpenoids and imatinib mesylate revealed that ursolic acid or betulinic acid acts in synergism with IMA, as indicated by the combination indexes (CI<1). Analysis of annexin V labeling demonstrated that a combination of IMA with betulinic acid enhances the inhibition on cell proliferation via the apoptosis pathway, with caspases 3/7 activation after 24 hours of treatment and inhibition of the STAT5/survivin pathway, decreasing cell viability. The combination of natural products and IMA on a multidrug-resistant leukemia cell line is a promising strategy for CML treatment.

Cytotoxic potential of Curcuma caesia rhizome extract and derived gold nanoparticles in targeting breast cancer cell lines

Among all types of cancer, breast cancer is the most aggressive, as it is responsible for most of the cancer related death of women. Though several medical therapies are available, the scenario of curing such disease is not favorable. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find alternatives to deal with it. The knowledge of ethnopharmacy might give some better solution to mitigate such deadly diseases. Here, we are using the rhizome of Curcuma caesia Roxb. (Black turmeric), as well as gold nanoparticles (GNPs) synthesized with it to check their specific cytotoxic potentiality against breast cancer cell lines. In our study, ethanolic extract was used to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of the rhizome. GNPs were synthesized by using the same extract and characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). The TEM, XRD, FTIR and TGA results revealed the successful synthesis and capping of GNPs. The UV-Vis Spectrum showed a sharp and narrow absorption peak at 550 nm and HRTEM confirmed both the stability and successful synthesis of the nanoparticles. The MTT assay of the crude extract revealed strong cytotoxicity against breast cancer cell lines viz. MCF-7 (ER+) and MDA MB-231 (Triple Negative Breast Cancer, TNBC) by showing IC50 values as 15.70 ± 0.029 and 21.57 ± 0.031 μg/mL respectively. For extract mediated GNPs, the IC50 values were found to be 6.44 ± 0.045 and 5.87 ± 0.031μg/mL respectively in both breast cancer cell lines. As the IC50 value for GNPs was found to be much lower than that of crude extract, it indicates a higher efficiency of the GNP. However, both the rhizome extract and its mediated GNPs showed more toxicity towards MDA MB-231 (TNBC) cell lines. It was also observed that the GNPs showed more toxicity towards TNBC cell lines compared to the rhizome extract. No toxicity was found in case of other cell lines such as L 929 and HeLa for both crude extract as well as for GNPs. These observations suggests that both the crude rhizome extract and its derived GNPs exhibit selective cytotoxic potential against breast cancer cell lines, which might be exploited for target specific treatment. Moreover, with an understanding of the mechanism behind the GNPs therapeutic efficiency, it can be developed as a personalized therapy to treat such type of cancers.

Ethanolic Extract of Artemisia vulgaris Leaf Promotes Apoptotic Cell Death in Non-Small-Cell Lung Carcinoma A549 Cells through Inhibition of the Wnt Signaling Pathway

The Wnt signaling pathway is reported to be associated with lung cancer progression, metastasis and drug resistance, and thus it is an important therapeutic target for lung cancer. Plants have been shown as reservoirs of multiple potential anticancer agents. In the present investigation, the ethanolic leaf extract of Artemisia vulgaris (AvL-EtOH) was initially analyzed by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to identify the important phytochemical constituents. The GC–MS analysis of AvL-EtOH exhibited 48 peaks of various secondary metabolites such as terpenoids, flavonoids, carbohydrates, coumarins, amino acids, steroids, proteins, phytosterols, and diterpenes. It was found that the treatment with increasing doses of AvL-EtOH suppressed the proliferation and migration of lung cancer cells. Furthermore, AvL-EtOH induced prominent nuclear alteration along with a reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential and increased ROS (reactive oxygen species) generation in lung cancer cells. Moreover, AvL-EtOH-treated cells exhibited increased apoptosis, demonstrated by the activation of caspase cascade. AvL-EtOH also induced downregulation of Wnt3 and β-catenin expression along with cell cycle protein cyclin D1. Thus, the results of our study elucidated the potential of bioactive components of Artemisia vulgaris in the therapeutic management of lung cancer cells.

Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) Extract Induces p53-Mediated Cytotoxicity and Inhibits Migration of Breast Cancer Cells

Green tea (GT) has been shown to play an important role in cancer chemoprevention. However, the related molecular mechanisms need to be further explored, especially regarding the use of GT extract (GTE) from the food matrix. For this study, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and epigallocatechin (EGC) were identified in GTE, representing 42 and 40% of the total polyphenols, respectively. MDA-MB-231 (p53-p.R280K mutant) and MCF-7 (wild-type p53) breast tumor cells and MCF-10A non-tumoral cells were exposed to GTE for 24–48 h and cell viability was assessed in the presence of p53 inhibitor pifithrin-α. GTE selectively targeted breast tumor cells without cytotoxic effect on non-tumoral cells and p53 inhibition led to an increase in viable cells, especially in MCF-7, suggesting the involvement of p53 in GTE-induced cytotoxicity. GTE was also effective in reducing MCF-7 and MDA-MD-231 cell migration by 30 and 50%, respectively. An increment in p53 and p21 expression stimulated by GTE was observed in MCF-7, and the opposite phenomenon was found in MDA-MB-231 cells, with a redistribution of mutant-p53 from the nucleus and no differences in p21 levels. All these findings provide insights into the action of GTE and support its anticarcinogenic potential on breast tumor cells.

CIB1 depletion with docetaxel or TRAIL enhances triple-negative breast cancer cell death

Background

Patients diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) have limited treatment options and often suffer from resistance and toxicity due to chemotherapy. We previously found that depleting calcium and integrin-binding protein 1 (CIB1) induces cell death selectively in TNBC cells, while sparing normal cells. Therefore, we asked whether CIB1 depletion further enhances tumor-specific killing when combined with either the commonly used chemotherapeutic, docetaxel, or the cell death-inducing ligand, TRAIL.

Methods

We targeted CIB1 by RNA interference in MDA-MB-436, MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, docetaxel-resistant MDA-MB-436 TNBC cells and ME16C normal breast epithelial cells alone or combination with docetaxel or TRAIL. Cell death was quantified via trypan blue exclusion using flow cytometry and cell death mechanisms were analyzed by Western blotting. Cell surface levels of TRAIL receptors were measured by flow cytometry analysis.

Results

CIB1 depletion combined with docetaxel significantly enhanced tumor-specific cell death relative to each treatment alone. The enhanced cell death strongly correlated with caspase-8 activation, a hallmark of death receptor-mediated apoptosis. The death receptor TRAIL-R2 was upregulated in response to CIB1 depletion, which sensitized TNBC cells to the ligand TRAIL, resulting in a synergistic increase in cell death. In addition to death receptor-mediated apoptosis, both combination treatments activated a non-apoptotic mechanism, called paraptosis. Interestingly, these combination treatments also induced nearly complete death of docetaxel-resistant MDA-MB-436 cells, again via apoptosis and paraptosis. In contrast, neither combination treatment induced cell death in normal ME16C cells.

Conclusion

Novel combinations of CIB1 depletion with docetaxel or TRAIL selectively enhance naive and docetaxel-resistant TNBC cell death while sparing normal cell. Therefore, combination therapies that target CIB1 could prove to be a safe and durable strategy for treatment of TNBC and potentially other cancers.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-019-0740-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Herbal Medicines Showing Synergistic Effects with Tumor Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) against A549 TRAIL-resistant Lung Cancer Cells: A Screening Study

Background:

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a cytokine that activates apoptosis through death receptors on the cell surface and is regarded as a potential anticancer agent. However, many cancer cells are resistant to TRAIL-induced apoptosis.

Objective:

The aim is to identify the herbal medicines that could help overcome resistance in TRAIL-resistant lung cancer cells.

Materials and Methods;

TRAIL-resistant A549 cells and 13 herbal medicines with known apoptosis-related anticancer effects were used in this study: Clematidis Radix, Corydalis Tuber Rhizoma, Paeoniae Radix Rubra, Corni Fructus, Curcumae longae Rhizoma (CLR), Moutan Cortex, Salviae miltiorrhizae Radix, Phellodendri Cortex, Farfarae Flos, Paeoniae Radix Alba, Angelicae gigantis Radix, Coptidis Rhizoma (CR), and Taraxaci Herba. Cytotoxic effects were investigated after a 48-h incubation, using an 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay, to identify the herbal medicines with the most potent synergistic effects with TRAIL.

Results:

The majority of the 13 medicines exhibited concentration-dependent cytotoxicity against A549 cells. Among them, CR and CLR showed the most potent cytotoxic effects, based on the IC₅₀. We then investigated the use of these two medicines in combination with TRAIL and identified synergistic cytotoxic effects against TRAIL-resistant A549 cells.

Conclusion:

Synergistic cytotoxic effects of the combination of TRAIL and herbal medicines, in particular, CR and CLR, were confirmed in A549 cells. Therefore, CR and CLR showed potential to be used as candidates to overcome TRAIL resistance. Future studies to identify their underlying mechanism of action are required.

SUMMARY

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is an attractive anticancer agent which can induce apoptosis in tumor cells without causing cytotoxicity to normal cells

However, resistance to TRAIL is often observed in some tumor cells, including nonsmall cell lung cancers, which may limit its cytotoxic efficacy in cancer treatment

The combination treatment of TRAIL and herbal medicines, particularly Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) and Curcumae longae Rhizoma (CLR), can induce the synergistic cytotoxic effects against TRAIL-resistant A549 cells, indicating that TRAIL resistance was reduced by combination therapy.

Abbreviations used: TRAIL: Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand; CLR: Curcumae longae Rhizoma; CR: Coptidis Rhizoma; NSCLC: non-small cell lung cancer.

Ethanolic extract of Thevetia peruviana flowers enhances TNF-α and TRAIL-induced apoptosis of human cervical cancer cells via intrinsic and extrinsic pathways

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) are promising candidates for cancer treatment due to their ability to induce apoptosis through death receptor stimulation. However, their usage may be limited due to the resistance of cancer cells to TNF-α- and TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Currently, there is interest in screening for natural products that can sensitize cancer cells to TNF-α- and TRAIL-induced apoptosis for their use in combination with TNF-α or TRAIL. It was previously reported that the bark extract of Thevetia peruviana showed a reversal effect on TRAIL-resistance in human gastric adenocarcinoma cell lines. In the present study, the effects of the ethanolic extract of T. peruviana flowers on TNF-α- and TRAIL-induced apoptosis of human cervical cancer HeLa cells were investigated in vitro by determining cell viability and apoptosis using a WST-1 cell proliferation assay and immunoblot analysis, respectively. The ethanolic extract of T. peruviana flowers promoted TNF-α and TRAIL-mediated cell death through the activation of the caspase cascade, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and BH3-interacting domain death agonist cleavage. Combined treatment using the extract plus TNF-α resulted in downregulation of anti-apoptotic protein, including myeloid cell leukemia sequence-1, B-cell lymphoma-extra large (Bcl-XL), X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein and survivin, while the combined treatment with TRAIL downregulated Bcl-XL. Thus, the ethanolic extract of T. peruviana flowers has potential in sensitizing the TNF-α- and TRAIL-induced apoptosis of HeLa cells via the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways.

Tumor Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand-Induced Apoptosis in Prostate Cancer Cells after Treatment with Xanthohumol-A Natural Compound Present in Humulus lupulus L

TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) is an endogenous ligand, which plays role in immune surveillance and anti-tumor immunity. It has ability to selectively kill tumor cells showing no toxicity to normal cells. We tested the apoptotic and cytotoxic activities of xanthohumol, a prenylated chalcone found in Humulus lupulus on androgen-sensitive human prostate adenocarcinoma cells (LNCaP) in combination with TRAIL. Cytotoxicity was measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide tetrazolium reduction assay (MTT) and lactate dehydrogenase assay (LDH). The expression of death receptors (DR4/TRAIL-R1 and DR5/TRAIL-R2) and apoptosis were detected using flow cytometry. We examined mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) by DePsipher reagent using fluorescence microscopy. The intracellular expression of proteins was evaluated by Western blotting. Our study showed that xanthohumol enhanced cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of TRAIL. The tested compounds activated caspases-3, -8, -9, Bid, and increased the expression of Bax. They also decreased expression of Bcl-xL and decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, while the expression of death receptors was not changed. The findings suggest that xanthohumol is a compound of potential use in chemoprevention of prostate cancer due to its sensitization of cancer cells to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis.

Chemoprevention in gastrointestinal physiology and disease. Targeting the progression of cancer with natural products: a focus on gastrointestinal cancer

The last decade has witnessed remarkable progress in the utilization of natural products for the prevention and treatment of human cancer. Many agents now in the pipeline for clinical trial testing have evolved from our understanding of how human nutritional patterns account for widespread differences in cancer risk. In this review, we have focused on many of these promising agents arguing that they may provide a new strategy for cancer control: natural products once thought to be only preventive in their mode of action now are being explored for efficacy in tandem with cancer therapeutics. Natural products may reduce off-target toxicity of therapeutics while making cancers more amenable to therapy. On the horizon is the use of certain natural products, in their own right, as mitigants of late-stage cancer, a new frontier for small-molecule natural product drug discovery.

Anticancer activity of Petroselinum sativum seed extracts on MCF-7 human breast cancer cells

Pharmacological and preventive properties of Petroselinum sativum seed extracts are well known, but the anticancer activity of alcoholic extracts and oil of Petroselinum sativum seeds on human breast cancer cells have not been explored so far. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the cytotoxic activities of these extracts against MCF-7 cells. Cells were exposed to 10 to 1000 μg/ml of alcoholic seed extract (PSA) and seed oil (PSO) of Petroselinum sativum for 24 h. Post-treatment, percent cell viability was studied by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2yl)-2, 5-biphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and neutral red uptake (NRU) assays, and cellular morphology by phase contrast inverted microscopy. The results showed that PSA and PSO significantly reduced cell viability, and altered the cellular morphology of MCF-7 cells in a concentration dependent manner. Concentrations of 50 μg/ml and above of PSA and 100 μg/ml and above of PSO were found to be cytotoxic in MCF-7 cells. Cell viability at 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000 μg/ml of PSA was recorded as 81%, 57%, 33%, 8% and 5%, respectively, whereas at 100, 250, 500, and 1000 μg/ml of PSO values were 90%, 78%, 62%, and 8%, respectively by MTT assay. MCF-7 cells exposed to 250, 500 and 1000 μg/ml of PSA and PSO lost their typical morphology and appeared smaller in size. The data revealed that the treatment with PSA and PSO of Petroselinum sativum induced cell death in MCF-7 cells.

In vitro cytotoxicity of Artemisia vulgaris L. essential oil is mediated by a mitochondria-dependent apoptosis in HL-60 leukemic cell line

Background

The essential oil (EO) of Artemisia vulgaris L. has been traditionally used worldwide for treating a large number of diseases. Although major components in A. vulgaris EO have been shown to inhibit growth of different cancer cells, as pure compounds or part of other plants extracted oil, no information is known about its anti-proliferative activities. Therefore, the current investigation has evaluated the toxicity of the plant extracted oil from buds (AVO-b) and leaves (AVO-l) and characterized their growth inhibitory effects on cancer cells.

Methods

AVO-b and AVO-l from A. vulgaris L. were extracted by hydrodistillation, and their effect on the viability of human HL-60 promyelocytic leukemia and various other cancer cell lines was tested using MTT assay. Flow cytometric analysis of apoptosis, DNA fragmentation assay, caspases enzymatic activities and Western blotting were used to determine the apoptotic pathway triggered by their action on HL-60 cells.

Results

Low concentrations of AVO-b and AVO-l inhibited the growth of HL-60 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Employing flow cytometric, DNA fragmentation and caspase activation analyses, demonstrated that the cytotoxic effect of the oils is mediated by a caspase-dependent apoptosis. Kinetic studies in the presence and absence specific caspase inhibitors showed that activation of caspase-8 was dependent and subsequent to the activation of caspases-9 and -3. In addition, the essential oil caused a disruption of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential (ΔΨ_m), increased the release of cytochrome c to the cytosol, and altered the expression of certain members of Bcl-2 family (Bcl-2, Bax and Bid), Apaf-1 and XIAP. Interestingly, low doses of AVO-b and AVO-1 also induced apoptosis in various cancer cell lines, but not in noncancerous cells.

Conclusions

The results demonstrate that the EO-induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells is mediated by caspase-dependent pathways, involving caspases-3, -9, and -8, which are initiated by Bcl-2/Bax/Bid-dependent loss of ΔΨ_m leading to release of cytochrome c to the cytoplasm to activate the caspase cascade. The finding that AVO-b and AVO-l are more efficient to induce apoptosis in different cancer cell lines than noncancerous cells, suggests that A. vulgaris might be a promising source for new anticancer agents.