Chemical composition and anti-proliferative effect of Oman's Ganoderma applanatum on breast cancer and cervical cancer cells

Objectives: To evaluate the anti-proliferative potential of Oman's Ganoderma applanatum on triple negative breast cancer cells [MDA-MB-231], cervical cancer cells [HEp-2]and Vero cells [normal] and its chemical profiling of G. applanatum

Methods: The cytotoxicity of the methanolic extract of G. applanatum was tested on MDA-MB-231 cells, HEp-2 cells and Vero cells by microculture tetrazolium [MTT] assay. The anti-cancer properties of G. applanatum were characterized using gas chromatography coupled with gas chromatography mass spectrometry [GCMS] analysis

Results: The methanolic extract of G. applanatum elicited dose-dependent cell death on both MDA-MB-231 and HEp-2 cells after 24 h of treatment, with an ICso value of 84.6 Jig/ml and 43.2 [ig/ml, respectively. Normal vero cells were able to significantly withstand the treatment. Furthermore, seven molecules were identified from G. applanatum by GCMS analysis, and five of them were present in considerable amounts, namely, 'y-terpinene [30.3%], D-limonene [23.6%], cis-2-methyl-4-pentylthiane-s,s-dioxide [15.3%] [3-cymene [12.7%] and oc-terpinolene [8.1%]

Conclusion: In this study, surprisingly, G. applanatum exhibited toxicity particularly towards tumour cells [MDA-MB-231 and HEp-2] compared to normal vero cells. This tumour-specific chemo-sensitivity of G. applanatum is unclear, and the mechanism of cancer cell death induced by G. applanatum should be studied in detail. In addition, the observed anti-cancer activity of G. applanatum might be due to the synergistic effects of the identified properties. This would pave the way for isolation and characterization of the potential anti-cancer molecule from Oman's G. applanatum

Frankincense derived heavy terpene cocktail boosting breast cancer cell (MDA-MB-231) death in vitro

Objective: To investigate the anti-cancer effect of frankincense derived heavy oil obtained by Soxhlet extraction method on breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231), and to study its chemical profile using gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis. Methods: Hexane was used to extract heavy oil from frankincense resin. Chemical profiling of heavy oil was done using Perkin Elmer Clarus GC system with mass spectrometer. MDA-MB-231 cells were treated with different dilutions (1:1. 000, 1:1. 500, 1:1. 750, 1:2. 000, 1:2. 250, 1:2. 500, 1:2. 750, 1:3. 000, 1:3. 250) of heavy oil for 24 h. The cells were observed by using light microscopy. Cell viability was measured by MTT assay. Results: Gas chromatography mass spectrometry chemical profiling of frankincense derived heavy oil revealed the presence of terpenes such as α-pinene (61.56%), α-amyrin (20.6%), β-amyrin (8.1%), β-phellandrene (1.47%) and camphene (1.04%). Heavy terpene cocktail induced significant MDA-MB-231 cell death at each concentration tested. Noticeably, very low concentration of Soxhlet derived heavy terpenes elicits considerable cytotoxicity on MDA-MB-231 cells compared to hydro distillated essential oil derived from frankincense resin. Conclusions: Extracting anti-cancer active principle cocktail by simple Soxhlet method is cost effective and less time consuming. Our in vitro anti-cancer data forms the rationale for us to test heavy terpene complex in breast cancer xenograft model in vivo. Furthermore, fractionation and developing frankincense heavy terpene based breast cancer drug is the major goal of our laboratory.