Cytotoxicity of alkaloids isolated from Peganum harmala seeds on HCT116 human colon cancer cells.

BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to elucidate the potential anticancer activity and mechanism of P. harmala's alkaloid extract, harmine (HAR), and harmaline (HAL) in HCT-116 colorectal cancer cells. METHODS AND RESULTS: P. harmala's alkaloid was extracted from harmala seeds. HCT-116 cells were treated with P. harmala's alkaloid extract, HAR and HAL. Cytotoxicity was determined by MTT assay, apoptotic activity detected via flow cytometry and acridine orange (AO)/ethidium bromide (EB) dual staining, and cell cycle distribution analyzed with flow cytometry. The mRNA expression of Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK3ß) was measured by real-time PCR. Furthermore, the expression of Bax, Bcl-2, GSK3ß and p53 proteins, were determined by western blotting. The findings indicated that, P. harmala's alkaloids extract, HAR and HAL were significantly cytotoxic toward HCT116 cells after 24 and 48 h of treatment. We showed that P. harmala's alkaloid extract induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G2 phase in the HCT116 cell line. Downregulation of GSK3ß and Bcl-2 and upregulation of Bax and p53 were observed. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate that the P. harmala's alkaloid extract has anticancer activity and may be further investigated to develop future anticancer chemotherapeutic agents.

Parthenolide reduces metastasis by inhibition of vimentin expression and induces apoptosis by suppression elongation factor α - 1 expression.

BACKGROUND: Use of pharmaceutical agent for breast cancer chemotherapy is an interesting method that induces cells death by different way, such as apoptosis. Parthenolide is the main compound in feverfew that has been used to cure migraine and rheumatoid arthritis for long time. Parthenolide has been predominately investigated as inducer of apoptosis in human cancer cells. PURPOSE: We examined the expression of vimentin and Elongation factor α - 1 as breast cancer biomarkers in MCF7 cells exposure to Parthenolide. METHOD: In this study, we investigated the antitumor mechanism of Parthenolide on the human breast cancer cell line MCF7, using SEM, flow cytometry and proteomics techniques. RESULT: Comparative proteome analyses are shown Elongation factor1-α and vimentin was suppressed in response to Parthenolide treatment.

Cadmium and copper induced changes in growth, oxidative metabolism and terpenoids of Tanacetum parthenium.

Morphological and biochemical responses of feverfew plants exposed to low (5 µM) and high (35 and 70 µM) levels of Cd or Cu were investigated. Increasing metal supply notably reduced the plant biomass. Elevated Cd and Cu levels also resulted in an increase in the leaf proline content. Besides, decrease in ascorbic acid (AsA) and glutathione (GSH) contents was similar in the leaves of Cd- and Cu-treated plants, indicating altered biosynthesis of AsA and GSH under metal excess. High metal doses stimulated increase in antioxidative enzyme activities that could be related to elevated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content and subsequent lipid peroxidation. Cd was typically more accumulated in shoots and roots than Cu, leading to higher translocation factor at high Cd doses. In terms of essential oil content, it seems that Cd had an inhibitory effect during the experiment, whereas Cu was found to stimulate it only at 5 µM. Furthermore, high Cd supply enhanced the relative proportion of monoterpene hydrocarbons, while Cu increased the proportion of sesquiterpenes, especially at 5 µM. This result provides the first evidence of the response of feverfew plants to Cd or Cu by associating stress-related responses with changes in terpenoids.