Evaluation of Cytotoxic Potential of Digera muricata Leaf Extract on Lung Cancer Cell Line

Lung cancer is the second most frequent cancer, accounting for one out of every five male cancers and one out of every nine female cancers. Treatment for lung cancer is determined by the disease's cell type, the extent to which it has spread, and the patient's overall health. It is common knowledge that tumours impart resistance to chemotherapeutic medicines or radiation in part owing to apoptotic pathway dysfunction in cancer cells. Digera muricata (D.muricata) has been used as medicinal remedies for various ailments due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-tumor activity. The objective of the study was to examine the cytotoxic activity of ethanolic leaf extract of D.muricata on lung cancer cell lines. The cytotoxic potency of D.muricata leaf extract was carried out by MTT assay against the lung cancer cell line (A549). Different concentrations of D.muricata ethanolic leaf extract (25-150µg/ml) were treated for 24h. Furthermore, the morphological changes were analysed using phase contrast microscopy. Pro-apoptotic and nuclear morphological changes in D. muricata ethanolic leaf extract treated cells were examined using DAPI staining. The ethanolic leaf extract of D.muricata showed the dose dependent cytotoxic potency against the A549 cell line which confirmed with greater morphological changes upon 24 hrs treatment. The MTT assay clearly showed that the D.muricata treatment has significantly reduced the cell viability when the concentration was increased for 24hrs. We observed IC-50 dose at 50 μg/ml concentration. DAPI staining clearly showed condensed chromatin and fragmented nuclei in treated lung cancer cells. All these results clearly showed that ethanolic extract of D. muricata treatment significantly inhibited the cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in lung cancer cells.