Cancer is a universal health issue, and many anticancer therapeutic drugs have been isolated from natural products. This study analyzed the cytotoxic and apoptotic activity of Plectranthus amboinicus leaf hexane (PALH) extract in MDA-MB-231 (median inhibitory concentration [IC50] = 39.26 μg/mL) and MCF7 (IC50 = 89.05 μg/mL) breast cancer cell lines. Cells appeared rounded and shrunken, indicating morphological changes due to apoptosis induction. The primary constituent of PALH was phenol, 5-methyl-2-(1-methylethyl) (44%). PALH extract treatment increased the percentage of late apoptotic cells in the MDA-MB231 cell line (58% ± 1.5% at 200 μg/mL) compared to the control group, as evidenced by the activated caspase-3 and caspase-7 identified and captured by fluorescence microscopy. The relative migration rate in MDA-MB-231 cells treated with 10 μg/mL of PALH extract for 48 h was significantly lower compared to the control group. Analysis of acute (2000 mg/kg/BW) and subacute (250 and 500 mg/kg/BW) toxicity of PALH extract in mice showed no mortality or adverse effects in the kidney and liver histology compared to the control group. PALH extract can be considered nontoxic as it does not cause any adverse changes and so can be proposed as a potential breast anticancer agent.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Caspase-3/7; Cell migration; Plectranthus amboinicus; Thymol, Apoptosis.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.