Flavonoids from ethanol extracts of euphorbia hirta inhibit melanoma growth and metastatic potential

Abstract

Background: Euphorbia hirta has many health benefits for enhancing human health. It exhibits various antioxidant properties. Our aim was to investigate the effects of several polyphenols from Euphorbia hirta ethanolic extract on the growth and metastatic potential of B16F10 melanoma cells in vitro and to measure the observable changes of cell morphology upon exposure to the extract. Methods: The cytotoxic activity of the Euphorbia hirta extract on B16F10 melanoma cell line was investigated in vitro using 3- (4, 5-dimethyl thiazol-2yl) -2, 5-diphenyl tet-razolium bromide (MTT). B16F10 (human Melanoma) cell lines were cultured in DMEM supplemented with 10% inactivated Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), penicillin (100 IU/ml), streptomycin (100 (ig/ml) and amphotericin B (5 (ig/ml) in an humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 at 37 °C until confluent. The cells were dissociated with Trypsin solution (0.2% trypsin, 0.02% EDTA in PBS). The stock cultures were grown in 25 cm2 culture flasks and all experiments were carried out in 96 micro-titer plates. After culturing and proliferation of B16F10 cells, these cells were exposed to various ethanolic extract of E hirta. The potency of plant extract concentration was calculated in terms of a percent decrease in viable B16F10 cells as compared to the control value. Results: The in vitro growth of B16F10 melanoma cells in the presence of a series of pol-yphenolic compounds (10-9 to 10-5 M) was evaluated. Quercetin, apigenin, EGCG, resveratrol, curcumin, and tamoxifen inhibited the growth of B16F10 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. The concentrations needed to inhibit cell growth by 50% (IC50) are reported. The results of MTT assay test showed that the ethanol extract of Euphorbia hirta was tested for the anticancer activity and it showed the most effective inhibition of B16F10 cells proliferation. Conclusions: We assessed the cytotoxic effect of Euphorbia hirta extract in cell culture. In defiance of astonishing advances in modern medicine, such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, melanoma cancer disease remains a worldwide health problem, thus endeavoring the search for a new alternate approach.