Prosopis juliflora leave extracts induce cell death of MCF-7, HepG2, and LS-174T cancer cell lines

Serag Eldin I Elbehairi; Ahmed Ezzat Ahmed; Ali A Alshati; Mohammed A Al-Kahtani; Mohammad Y Alfaifi; Khalid M Alsyaad; Ali Yahya A Alalmie; Mohammed M Elimam Ahamed; Mahmoud F Moustafa; Sadeq K Alhag; Ahmed M Al-Abd; Ahmed M Abbas

doi:10.17179/excli2020-2830

Prosopis juliflora leave extracts induce cell death of MCF-7, HepG2, and LS-174T cancer cell lines

EXCLI J. 2020 Sep 9:19:1282-1294. doi: 10.17179/excli2020-2830. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Serag Eldin I Elbehairi^{1

2}, Ahmed Ezzat Ahmed^{1

3}, Ali A Alshati¹, Mohammed A Al-Kahtani¹, Mohammad Y Alfaifi¹, Khalid M Alsyaad^{1

4}, Ali Yahya A Alalmie⁵, Mohammed M Elimam Ahamed^{6

7}, Mahmoud F Moustafa^{1

8}, Sadeq K Alhag^{9

10}, Ahmed M Al-Abd^{11

12}, Ahmed M Abbas^{1

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
² Cell Culture Laboratory, Egyptian Organization for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA Holding Company), Agouza, Giza, Egypt.
³ Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.
⁴ Director of the Research Centre, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ The Poison Control and Medical Forensic Chemistry Centre, Asir, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Unit of Bee Research and Honey Production, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Botany & Microbiology, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt.
⁹ Biology Department, College of Arts and Science, King Khalid University, Muhayl Asir, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Biology Department, College of Science, Ibb University, Yemen.
¹¹ Department of Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy & Thumbay Research Institute of Precision Medicine, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, UAE.
¹² Pharmacology Department, Medical Division, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Prosopis juliflora (P. juliflora) is a widespread phreatophytic tree, which belongs to the Fabaceae family. The goal of the present study is to investigate the potential anti-cancer effect of P. juliflora leave extracts and to identify its chemical composition. For this purpose, MCF-7 (breast), HepG2 (liver), and LS-174T (colorectal) cancer cell lines were cultivated and incubated with various concentrations of P. juliflora leave extracts, and its impact on cell viability, proliferation, and cell cycle stages was investigated. P. juliflora leave extracts induced concentration-dependent cytotoxicity against all tested cancer cell lines. The calculated IC₅₀ was 18.17, 33.1 and 41.9 μg/ml for MCF-7, HePG2 and LS-174T, respectively. Detailed analysis revealed that the cytotoxic action of P. juliflora extracts was mainly via necrosis but not apoptosis. Moreover, DNA content flow cytometry analysis showed cell-specific anti-proliferative action and cell cycle stages arrest. In order to identify the anti-cancer constituents of P. juliflora, the ethyl extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The major constituents identified in the ethyl extracts of P. juliflora leaves were hydroxymethyl-pyridine, nicotinamide, adenine, and poly-(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). In conclusion, P. juliflora ethyl acetate extracts have a potential anti-cancer effect against breast adenocarcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and colorectal adenocarcinoma, and is enriched with anti-cancer constituents. See also Figure 1(Fig. 1).

Keywords: HePG2; LS-174T; MCF-7; Prosopis juliflora; apoptosis; cancer; cytotoxicity.