Abstract 5539: Antiproliferative and apoptotic effects of some African natural products in solid and hematopoietic malignant cell lines

Background: Natural products have played a very important role in health care from time immemorial in curation and prevention of diseases. Antiproliferative and apoptotic effects of extracts of some African natural products like Hymelocardia acida, Moringa oleifera leaves as well as Pleurotus pulmonarius mushroom metabolites were studied in a panel of solid and hematopoietic malignant derived cell lines such as SUIT2-007, MDA-MB 231, SW480, K562 and HL60 cells. Methods: MTT assay was used to determine the growth inhibition of respective cells in vitro. Apoptosis of the cells was demonstrated by fluorescence microscopy and Hoechst 33342 staining, DNA ladder formation assay and flow cytometry with propidium iodide staining. Results: MTT results showed that extracts of Hymelocardia acida stem, Moringa oleifera leaves as well as Pleurotus pulmonarius metabolites could inhibit the proliferation of SUIT2-007, MDA-MB 231, SW480, K562 and HL60 cells in a time and dose dependent manner. Our results show that the ethanol extract of Hymelocardia acida stem had a positive effect and induced apoptosis as shown by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry assay. Apoptotic effects were demonstrated by nuclear staining with Hoechst showing clear signs for nuclear fragmentation in cells treated with Hymelocardia acida stem and Moringa oleifera leaves extracts. FACS analysis with propidium iodide showed that the sub G1 fraction increased in treated cells. DNA ladder formation, however, showed no clear DNA fragmentation, which does not exclude a clearer picture with isolated compounds. Conclusion: The present study indicates that the extracts studied can effectively inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in cells of panel of tumor cell lines investigated. Citation Format: Olufemi E. Akanni, Martin R. Berger. Antiproliferative and apoptotic effects of some African natural products in solid and hematopoietic malignant cell lines. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 5539. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-5539