A natural compound from Hydnophytum formicarium induces apoptosis of MCF-7 cells via up-regulation of Bax

  • Cancer Cell Int. 2010 May 4;10:14. doi: 10.1186/1475-2867-10-14.
Hasmah Abdullah  1 ,  Azimahtol Hawariah Lope Pihie  2 ,  Judit Hohmann   #  3 ,  Joseph Molnár  4
Affiliations
  • 1. School of Health Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia 16150 Kota Bharu, Kelantan.
  • 2. School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 46500, Selangor, Malaysia.
  • 3. Institute of Pharmacognosy, University of Szeged, Hungary.
  • 4. Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Szeged, Hungary.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 20441573 DOI: 10.1186/1475-2867-10-14
Abstract

Background: Hydnophytum formicarium Jack is an epyphytic shrub that belongs to the family of Rubiaceae and is native to the tropical rain forests of the Asean region, which includes Malaysia. A flavanoid derivative, 7, 3', 5'-trihydroxyflavanone (3HFD), isolated from H. formicarium has been reported to have cytotoxic effects on the human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7. The aim of the current study was to investigate the mode of cell death in MCF-7 cells treated with 3HFD. A DNA fragmentation assay was conducted on isolated genomic DNA, a TUNEL assay was used to determine the mode of cell death and Western blotting was used to evaluate the expression levels of Bax and Bcl-2. Immunofluorescence staining of MCF-7 cells was also performed to confirm the up-regulation of the Bax protein.

Results: The ladder pattern resulting from the DNA fragmentation assay was a multimer of 180 kb. The morphological changes of cells undergoing Apoptosis were visualised by a TUNEL assay over time. The percentage of apoptotic cells increased as early as 6 hours post treatment compared to untreated cells. Western blotting revealed up-regulation of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax. However, 3HFD did not affect expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2.

Conclusions: Our results provide evidence that plant-derived 3HFD was able to induce the apoptotic cell death of MCF-7 cells by increasing Bax expression level and makes 3HFD a promising agent for chemotherapy, which merits further study.

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