Evaluation of anticancer activity of extracted flavonoids from Morus Alba leaves and its interaction with DNA

Abstract

Morous Alba, known as white mulberry contains many oxidative flavonoids, widely used in the treatment of many diseases like hyperglycemia, inflammation, fever and cancer. In the present study we investigated the interaction of extracted flavonoids from Iranian Morus Alba leaves with DNA as a main target for anticancer drugs. Various spectroscopic techniques (UV/Vis, CD and Fluorescence Spectroscopy) were used to detect the interaction. In vivo studies also were done to confirm the effectiveness of the extracted flavonoids. The spectroscopic results showed that the extracted flavonoids bind to DNA especially to the sugar-phosphate backbone and making DNA conformational changes upon this binding. Experiments on the cancerous mice with solid tumors indicated that the treatment of mice with these extracted flavonoids increased significantly the life span but they did not have any effects on the tumor size reduction. These data suggest that Morus Alba flavonoids may use as an effective natural anticancer drug in the near future.