The methanol-ethyl acetate partitioned fraction from Chinese olive fruits inhibits cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth by promoting apoptosis through the suppression of the NF-κB signaling pathway.

Chinese olives (Canarium album L.) have historically been used for medicinal purposes rather than commercially for oil. In this report, we reveal that the methanol-ethyl acetate partitioned fraction from Chinese olive fruits (MEO), of which ellagic acid accounted for 12%, exhibited profound anti-proliferative activities in the human colon cancer cell line, HCT116. Additionally, oral administration of MEO remarkably inhibited the tumor growth of subcutaneously implanted CT26 cells, a mouse colon carcinoma cell line, in BALB/c mice. Treatment with MEO induced a significant increase in the percentage of apoptotic cells and resulted in poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage, suggesting that MEO inhibits cancer cell proliferation by promoting apoptosis. Our study also showed that MEO exerted the most potent effect on the inhibition of NF-κB-mediated signaling among the partitioned fractions from Chinese olives. This process employed the use of reporter-based bio-platforms that are capable of detecting the activation of NF-κB. In addition, phosphorylation of NF-κB signaling-associated proteins, IKKα/ß, IκBα, and p65, was reduced in MEO-incubated cancer cells, indicating that MEO suppresses NF-κB activation. Moreover, MEO treatment significantly suppressed lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cancer cell proliferation, demonstrating that MEO promotes cancer cell apoptosis through the inhibition of the NF-κB signaling pathway. In summary, our findings demonstrate that the methanol-ethyl acetate partitioned fraction from Chinese olive fruits inhibits cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth by promoting apoptosis through the suppression of NF-κB signaling. Therefore, the Chinese olive fruit has promising potential in cancer treatment.

Establishment and evaluation of biotechnological platform for screening health food with antiinflammation ability.

Chronic inflammation leads to a progressive inflammation in certain types of cells. Recent studies report that the activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) increases the expression of inflammation-related protein such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), which further enhance the chronic inflammation, thus conduct the development of disorders. The aim of the study is to develop an efficient method for screening food components with anti-inflammation function. Here we employed a reporter plasmid, which contains NF-κB response element followed by a minimal promoter for driving the down-stream luciferase reporter gene. After transfection of this plasmid to a mouse cell line RAW264.7, we obtained stable clones by using Hygromycin selection. Our results reveal that the luciferase activity of the cell based platform can be induced by the inflammation inducing reagent LPS and can be further suppressed by the administration of CAPE, an anti-inflammation chemical. The results estimated by our platform present good correlation to that analyzed by RT-Q-PCR. Additionally, the known anti-inflammation factors such as resveratrol, significantly counteracted the effect of LPS on our platform. Furthermore, the screening result of various mushroom extract showed that some fractions revealed NF-κB activating effects. Therefore, we conclude that the platform is effective in large scale screening for inflammatory regulating compounds.