Assessment of the anti-cancer properties of low-intensity ultrasound coupled with momordica charantia (bitter gourd) extract on MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines

• Main Authors: Abrajano, Andrea S, Reyes, Genica S
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Cancer cells; Breast > Cancer > Assessment; Physics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_physics/6; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdb_physics/article/1010/viewcontent/2022_Abrajano_Reyes_Assessment_of_the_Anti_cancer_Properties_Full_text.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

New approaches for targeting cells are being developed, and one treatment being investigated is the use of ultrasonic energy to eliminate cancer cells. The purpose of this study is to see if a combination of 2 MHz low-intensity ultrasound and Momordica charantia extract could affect MCF-7 breast cancer cells and cause them to induce apoptosis. The cancer cell line was given eight different treatments to achieve this: a positive control group that received no treatments, ultrasound treatment with different exposure times—1 minute, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes—without the application of Momordica charantia extract, ultrasound treatment with Momordica charantia extract without ultrasound treatment, and a combination of Momordica charantia extract and ultrasound treatment with exposure times of 1, 5, and 10 minutes. PrestoBlue™ assay was utilized to acquire data regarding the extract's cytotoxicity concentration and cancer cell viability after treating it with the treatment groups. The results were then examined using the Graphpad Prism® software to calculate the IC50 and establish their relevance. Results show that the Momordica charantia is cytotoxic to MCF-7 breast cancer cell line with an IC50 of 22.76 μg/mL which is within the recommended concentration range for cytotoxic crude extracts (30 μg/mL). Apoptosis was seen in all treatment groups, however Momordica charantia mixed with ultrasound reduced cell proliferation and triggered apoptosis in MCF-7 breast cancer cells more. 51.27% of cells were killed after 10 minutes of exposure. Cell death rates were 28.14% and 32.54% in the groups that were exposed to ultrasound for 1 minute and 5 minutes, respectively. This was further clarified by statistical analysis, which revealed that in the end, the Momordica charantia + 2 MHz at 10 minutes exposure caused the most cellular damage of all the setups.