Potential bioactivity of Phoenix dactylifera fruits, leaves, and seeds against prostate and pancreatic cancer cells

Hesham S Ghazzawy; Mostafa M Gouda; Nabil S Awad; Nadi Awad Al-Harbi; Mesfer M Alqahtani; Maha M Abdel-Salam; Mohamed A Abdein; Sanad M Al-Sobeai; Asmaa A Hamad; Hassan M Alsberi; Gamal A Gabr; Dalia M Hikal

doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.998929

Potential bioactivity of Phoenix dactylifera fruits, leaves, and seeds against prostate and pancreatic cancer cells

Front Nutr. 2022 Oct 28:9:998929. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.998929. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Hesham S Ghazzawy^{1

2}, Mostafa M Gouda^{3

4}, Nabil S Awad^{5

6}, Nadi Awad Al-Harbi⁷, Mesfer M Alqahtani⁸, Maha M Abdel-Salam⁹, Mohamed A Abdein¹⁰, Sanad M Al-Sobeai¹¹, Asmaa A Hamad^{12

13}, Hassan M Alsberi^{12

14}, Gamal A Gabr^{15

16}, Dalia M Hikal¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Date Palm Research Center of Excellence, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
² Central Laboratory for Date Palm Research and Development, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, Egypt.
³ College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
⁴ Department of Nutrition and Food Science, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.
⁶ College of Biotechnology, Misr University for Science and Technology, Giza, Egypt.
⁷ Biology Department, University College of Tayma, University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science and Humanities, Shaqra University, Ad-Dawadimi, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department of Pomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science, Northern Border University, Rafha, Saudi Arabia.
¹¹ Sajir College of Arts and Science, Shaqra University, Sharqa, Saudi Arabia.
¹² Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
¹³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
¹⁴ Department of Basic Medical Science and Histopathology, National Organization for Drug Control and Research, Giza, Egypt.
¹⁵ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁶ Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt.
¹⁷ Nutrition and Food Science, Department of Home Economics, Faculty of Specific Education, Sohag University, Sohag, Egypt.

Abstract

The use of functional foods' phytochemicals in the chemoprevention of different cancer diseases has become one of the hot scientific areas in the clinical nutrition field. For instance, the Khalas palm cultivar (KPC; Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the natural sustainable resources that have high bioactivity and functionality. This study aimed to investigate the antiproliferative activity and mode of action of KPC's different parts on prostate (Pc3) and pancreatic (panc1) cancer cells at a molecular level. In the methods, KPC's leaves, seeds, and fruits' chemical composition and phytochemical analysis were analyzed. Also, the cytotoxic effects of each extract were assessed against pc3 and panc1 cell lines. Besides, induction of apoptosis, cell cycle analysis, and gene expression of both Cap3 and Cap9 were studied. The obtained results indicated that KPC leaves extract exhibited the highest significant (P < 0.01) anti-proliferation activity against the utilized cancer cell lines compared to fruits and seeds extracts. Also, there were significant (P < 0.05) differences in the phenolic contents, flavonoid of compounds, and antioxidant power of the leaves when compared to the seeds and fruits. Additionally, the highest cytotoxic effect (lowest IC₅₀) was recorded with leave extract than seeds and fruits. Meanwhile, the seeds extract induced (P < 0.05) the apoptosis and arrested cells in the G2/M phase as well as up-regulated the gene expression of the apoptotic-related genes (Casp3 and Casp9) compared to the control group. In conclusion, this study showed that the presence of bioactive components in the KPC different parts extracts have the significant ability to induce the apoptotic pathway that could down-regulate the proliferation of prostate (pc3) and pancreatic (panc1) cancer cells. The pathway mechanism of action was induced by the phytol molecule presented in its leaves extract.

Keywords: apoptosis; cancer cells line; cytotoxic effect; date palm; functional food; pancreatic prostate.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, Vice Presidency for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia (Project No. GRANT1421).