Open Access

ARTICLE

The effect of natural products combination on MCF-7 cells exceeds tamoxifen therapeutic dose effects in vitro

ZEINAB KLAAB¹, AZIZA HASSAN², JAWAHER ALBAQAMI¹, FAIZAH A. ALMALKI^1,*

1 Department of Biology, Taif University, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia
2 Department of Biotechnology, Taif University, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia

* Corresponding Author: FAIZAH A. ALMALKI. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Herbal Active Ingredients: Potential for the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer)

BIOCELL 2023, 47(4), 891-904. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2023.026556

Received 13 September 2022; Accepted 30 December 2022; Issue published 08 March 2023

Abstract

Cancer remains to be one of the most severe sicknesses globally. Cases have kept rising over the years. Breast cancer (BC), which is among the leading types of cancers and predominantly affects women, is the second leading cause of cancer mortality. Researchers have developed interventions over the years; however, the BC survival rate has not improved since the 1980s. This has created the need for novel drug interventions that would manage and treat BC more effectively. This study focused on using a combination of natural product extracts such as phytoestrogen (Ziziphus jujube) and Tannin nanoparticles (NP99) together, which we have referred to as (Z.NP99) and tamoxifen (Tam) as one of the leading BC drugs since the 70s, in treating BC. The effectiveness of Tam if used alone in the treatment and if combined with Z.NP99 was evaluated using MCF-7 cells in vitro. The findings showed that the combination treatment of Z.NP99 affected the proliferation and viability of MCF-7 cells more than Tam at a 10 μg/mL dose. Moreover, Z.NP99 with Tam stimulated the maximum reduction of MCF-7 proliferation and viability in a time-dependent manner. Furthermore, Tam and Z.NP99 augmented the DNA fragmentation percentage combined with the upregulation of the apoptotic genes. Additionally, the results showed that the apoptotic impact of Z.NP99 and Tam on MCF-7 cells may be intermediated by down-regulating some genes such as Claudin-1 followed by down-regulating mRNA expression of MMP-9, VEGF, and BCL-2 genes of treated cells. Combining Tam with Z.NP99 considerably enhanced the effectiveness of conventional therapy. As a result, this study suggested that the Z.NP99 was ideal for developing effective natural treatments that would improve BC outcomes.

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Keywords

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