Scurrula ferruginea methanol extract induces reactive oxygen species-mediated and mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis in breast cancer cells

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate antioxidant and anticancer activities of Scurrula ferruginea extracts. The antioxidant activities of the extracts were evaluated using various assays. The extracts were further investigated to examine their cytotoxic activity on human breast cancer cell lines; MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468 and MCF-7 using MTT assay. Microscopic examinations of cells were carried out to elucidate the modes of cell death. The effect of the extracts on cancer cells colony formation and migration were determined. Changes in mitochondrial membrane potential and level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured. Western blot and cell cycle analysis were performed to unravel the mechanism of action of extracts against the breast cancer cells. Using GC-MS analysis, chemical composition of extracts were characterized to reveal the presence of anti-cancerous compounds. Our study on stem methanol extract has shown the highest amount of phenolic, flavonoid contents, strong DPPH radical scavenging and metal chelation activity in comparison to other extracts. The stem aqueous and methanol extracts have shown higher cytotoxic effect towards MDA-MB-231 cells compared to other cell lines with IC50 value of 50.35 and 19.27 μg/mL, after 72 h of treatment, respectively. Morphological observations revealed properties of apoptosis in the treated cells. The results displayed that the extracts have the ability to stop migration of cancer cells and also inhibit the colony formation of cancer cells. Moreover, the results have shown that the extracts induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells by ROS generation and mitochondrial depolarization. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that methanol extract inhibited the proliferation of breast cancer cells via induction of cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase and apoptosis through a mitochondria-dependent apoptosis pathway. The findings of present study revealed the potential antioxidant and anticancer activities of S. ferruginea stem methanol extract which may serve as a promising candidate in the search of a new anti-cancer drug.