Cancer selective cytotoxicity of Sida acuta extracts on Artemia salina and human breast adenocarcinoma cells

Abstract

Cancer is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality globally. The interests in the use of plants or plant-derived compounds are increasing recently due to their promising results in chemoprevention. The present study investigates the anti-cancer potentials of Sida acuta, a traditionally well-known medicinal plant. Accordingly, the methanol and aqueous extracts of S. acuta (SAM and SAA) were tested against Artemia salina nauplii for toxicity and on MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 human breast adenocarcinoma cell lines for cytotoxic and apoptotic properties. Both the extracts, SAM and SAA exhibited higher toxicity towards Artemia salina. Interestingly, the extracts exhibited minimal cytotoxicity in normal cells (VERO) than in human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7). The highly active SAA successfully induced apoptosis in MDA MB 231 and MCF-7 cells showing 17.81% and 4.27% of late apoptotic cells and 27.14% and 37.32% of early apoptotic cells, respectively. Most of the drugs being developed from plant sources had landed successfully in clinical trials. In conclusion, the observations clearly suggest that SAA may have possible therapeutic potential against human breast cancer-derived diseases specifically against ER-positive breast cancer.