Anti cancer activity of Trachyspermum ammi against MCF-7 cell lines mediates by p53 and Bcl-2 mRNA levels

Breast cancer is second most common in women and accounts for 23% of all occurring cancers in women. Patients with breast cancer have increasingly shown resistance and high toxicity to chemotherapeutic drugs. Plant-derived products have proved to be an important source of anti-cancer drugs. The present study was to investigate the anti cancer activity of ethanolic extract of Trachyspermum ammi against MCF-7 cell lines. The preliminary phytochemical studies of ethanolic extract of Trachyspermum ammi showed the presence of flavanoids, alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, carbohydrates, phenols, tannins and terpenes. The IC50 concentration of ethanolic extract of Trachyspermum ammi was determined by MTT assay. The results showed the greater degree of cytotoxicity at the dose of 25µg/ml of Trachyspermum ammi and it has been taken as IC50 value for our further study. Then, we also evaluated the apoptotic effect by measuring the morphological changes, cell viability rates using light and fluorescent microscopical studies and DNA fragmentation by using gel electrophoresis method. The ethanolic extract of Trachyspermum ammi showed significant signs of apoptosis such as cell shrinkage, membrane blebbing and nuclei DNA fragmentation. Further, we analyze the gene expression mRNA levels by using RT-PCR method, it showed the expression of p53 was significantly (P<0.001) increased when compared with normal MCF-7 cell line. The expression of anti apoptotic gene Bcl-2 was significantly (P<0.01) reduced when compared with MCF-7 cell line. From this study we conclude that ethanolic extract of Trachyspermum ammi having significant anticancer activity against MCF-7 cell lines and it might be good therapeutic value for further investigation to develop natural compounds as a anti tumor agents.