Anti cancer effect of Morus nigra exosomes on different cancer types

The discovery of exosomes and the understanding of the importance of their cell-cell-intercellular biological functions have made these nanovesicles widely used as therapeutic agents in many diseases. Cancer is one of these diseases; It is used in cancer research for early diagnosis, treatment, drug delivery and many other purposes. Based on this information, in this study Morus nigra (Black mulberry, urmu mulberry) exosomes were isolated and their effects on colon cancer and lung cancer cell lines were investigated. A study examining the effects of M. nigra fruit on cancer has not been done before. For this reason, it is thought that an alternative treatment for cancer, which is today's most serious and increasingly common problem, can be discovered by isolating the exosomes of this fruit and giving it to the colon and lung cells and investigating its effects on cancer. In this thesis, the possible therapeutic potential of plant-derived exosomes was evaluated by inducing apoptosis in in vitro models (MDA-MB 231) based on different cancer types such as lung cancer (A549) and colon cancer (HCT 116). Exosomes from M. nigra were characterized by NTA analysis.To evaluate the putative cytotoxic effect on cancerous cells, cell viability assay (WSTI) analysis was performed on cells incubated with exosome preparations for 3 days at 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours time points at 7 different concentrations ranging from 25 to 250 µg/mL. According to our findings, exosomes incubated with HCT 116 cell lines affected the viability of cancerous cells by 46% compared to control cells. On the other hand, 28% viability was observed in A549 cell lines at 250 μg/mL at 72 hours. In conclusion, our study shows that plant-derived exosomes may be promising therapeutic agents in future cancer treatment and constitutes an important resource for further studies.