Abstract
Background: Despite significant advances in therapeutic interventions, liver cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in the world. Potential phytochemicals have shown to be promising agents against many life-threatening diseases because of their low toxicity and potential effectiveness. Objective: The current study aims to conduct an in vitro investigation of the anticancer activity of Apricot Ex-tract (AE) and Amygdalin Containing Fraction (ACF), additionally studying their therapeutic effects on DMBA-induced liver carcinogenesis mice model to highlight their related biochemical and molecular mechanisms.
Methods and Results: Amygdalin was isolated from the seeds of P. armeniaca L. Male mice received AE or ACF, DMBA, DMBA+AE, DMBA+ACF, and vehicles. The oxidative stress and antioxidant markers, cell pro-liferation by flow cytometric analysis of Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) expression, angiogenesis marker (VEGF), inflammatory marker (TNF-alpha), apoptotic, anti-apoptotic and autophagy genes expression (caspase-3, Bcl-2, and Beclin-1) were investigated. AE and ACF were found to stimulate the apoptotic process by up-regulating caspase-3 expression and down-regulating Bcl-2 expression. They also reduced VEGF and PCNA levels and increased the antioxidant defense system. Moreover, AE and ACF treatments also inhibited HepG2 and EAC cell proliferation and up-regulated Beclin-1 expression.
Conclusion: This study provides evidence that, in DMBA-induced hepatocarcinogenesis, the key proteins in-volved in the proliferation, angiogenesis, autophagy, and apoptosis are feasible molecular targets for hepa-totherapeutic potential using AE and ACF.