Investigation of inhibitory effect of Cucurbitacin i and Ecballium elaterium L. extract on breast cancer cells

Cancer is among the major health problems nowadays. Breast cancer has a significant mortality, especially in women. Although important progress has been made in cancer therapy, it is not enough to decrease mortality rate. Thus, the patients search alternative therapy methods. One of the most popular is herbal remedies. Objective of this study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of Cucurbitacin I and Ecballium elaterium L. (fruit juice and chloroform extract) on breast cancer cells. Cucurbitacin I content of E.elaterium fruit juice and chloroform extract was quantified using HPLC. The cytotoxic effects of the fruit juice, chloroform extract and Cucurbitacin I on breast cancer cells were determined by MTT, wound healing and colony formation assay. According to MTT results, it is observed that a significant inhibitory effect in Cucurbitacin I treated breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 with %68,76 and % 82,48 at 400 nM for 72 h, respectively. Inhibitory effect of the fruit juice of E. elaterium was %85,16 for MCF-7 cells and %52,47 for MDA-MB-231 at 10 mg/mL for 72 h. In addition, chloroform extract inhibited %87,51 of MCF-7 cells and %64,95 of MDA-MB-231 cells at 0,1 mg/mL for 72 h. In the dose-time Wound Healing assay, it sees that while cell migration continued in control group (untreated) at 36 h, there was significantly decrease in the cell migration in treated cells with Cucurbitacin I, E. elaterium fruit juice and chloroform extract. It was also found that treated cells with Cucurbitacin I, E. elaterium fruit juice and chloroform extract are unable to form colonies after specific dose in Colony Formation assay. Our data showed that Cucurbitacin I, E.elaterium fruit juice and chloroform extract have anti-proliferative activity on the breast cancer cells. Clarifying the mechanisms of cucurbitacins enable to identify new molecular targets for breast cancer therapy. Key Words: Cucurbitacin I, Breast Cancer, Ecballium elaterium