Abstract
Abstract
Background: Recently, there has been a growing evidence proposed regarding role of phytobiological compounds against various malignancies. One of the novel phytobiological mixture (PB), which is a mixture composed of the following: quercetin, resveratrol, cruciferex, epigallocatechin-3-gallate and curcumin at different proportions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the effects of a PB on breast cancer cell lines and its impact on the expression profile of these cells.
Aim: Herein, we investigated the anti-proliferative effects of PB against two breast cancer cell lines: MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7, in addition, to investigating whether PB may alter the expression profile of glycolytic enzymes and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) genes in these cell lines.
Method: The anti-proliferative effect of PB was evaluated in vitro against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines using SRB assay. The effect of PB on the relative expression profile of some of the glycolytic enzymes and EMT genes was conducted using TaqMan gene expression assays via reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR).
Results: At 72 hrs, treatment with PB showed cytotoxic effects against MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells with an IC50's of 25.9±3 µg/ml and 29.5± 0.9 µg/ml, respectively. At 24 hrs post PB treatment, there was a significant increase in the gene expression of most glycolytic enzymes such as; Phosphofructokinase muscle type (PFKM) (1.4± 0.1, p<0.01) and Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase isoenzyme 1 (PDK-1) (1.6± 0.2 fold, p< 0.001). PB did not seem to alter the EMT gene expression profile with both cadherin 1 and 2 showing no significant changes. Interestingly, however, a significant up-regulation was seen with ZEB2 member of the zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 2, post PB treatment.
Conclusion: In conclusion PB showed a promising anti-proliferative effect against two breast cancer cell lines. However, we postulate that the drug could be modulating glycolytic enzymes expression, which ultimately can affect key molecules in cell differentiation. Further studies are needed to elucidate the exact underlying mechanism and to better understand the most beneficial drug combinations that can work synergistically with PB to interfere with different tumor hallmarks.
Citation Format: Aliaa A. Alamoudi, Afnan A. Alqarni, Ghada Ajabnoor, Aleksandra Niedwiecki, Matthias Rath, Steve M. Harakeh, Ahmed M. Al-Abd. Evaluating a novel phytobiologic mixture against breast cancer cell lines: Effect on glycolytic enzymes and EMT gene expression profile [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5430.