Selective toxicity of Cistanche tubulosa root extract on cancerous skin mitochondria isolated from animal model of melanoma

Abstract

Introduction

As a major public health issue, skin cancer is a leading reason of death and has resulted in significant financial and human losses globally. Numerous environmental and internal variables may both drive and exacerbate the pathophysiology of skin cancer. Marine herbs and animals, including marine sponges, cucumbers, and squirts, have been shown to have cytotoxic consequences on cancerous cells in prior research.

Purpose

melanoma mitochondria obtained from the skin of melanoma animal models are studied in this research to see whether extracts from Cistanche tubulosa, a plant endemic to the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf, have a cytotoxic impact on them.

Material and method

In this study, the mitochondria were isolated from melanoma cells via differential centrifugation and treated with various concentrations (1250, 2500 and 5000 µg/ml) of methanolic extract of C. tubulosa. Then MTT, ROS, MMP decline, mitochondrial swelling, cytochrome c release and flow cytometry assays were performed on them.

Results

The results of the MTT assay showed that the IC50 of C. tubulosa extract is 2500 μg/ml and C. tubulosa extract induced a selectively significant (P < 0.05) concentration-dependent decrease in the SDH activity in cancerous skin mitochondria. The ROS results also showed that all concentrations of C. tubulosa extracts significantly increased ROS production, MMP decline and the release of cytochrome c in cancer group mitochondria. The swelling of mitochondria isolated from the cancer group was significantly increased compared to the control group. In addition, the results of the apoptosis assay showed that the addition of root extract of C. tubulosa on melanoma cells increased apoptosis, while it had no effect on control non-tumour cells.

Discussion and conclusion

Based on these results, the presence of potentially bioactive compounds in C. tubulosa makes this Persian Gulf coastal herb a strong candidate for further molecular studies and clinical research in the field of melanoma cancer therapy.

Keywords:

• Cistanche tubulosa
• reactive oxygen species
• oxidative stress
• apoptosis
• mitochondria
• melanoma

Acknowledgements

The results presented in this article were partly extracted from Dr. Mobina Heidari’s thesis, Pharmacy School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. The thesis was performed under the supervision of Prof. Jalal Pourahmad.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

The investigation was financially supported by a research grant from the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Deputy of Research, Tehran, Iran.