N-Hexane fraction of Moringa oleifera Lam. leaves induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest on T47D breast cancer cell line

Context: Moringa plant (Moringa oleifera) is one of the medicinal plants used as traditional medicine for the treatment of the variety of diseases including cancer. Recently, extensive research has been conducted on leaf extracts of M. oleifera to evaluate their potential cytotoxic effects. Several studies have reported anti proliferative activity of water and alcoholic extracts of leaf, bark and seed of M. oleifera on some cancer cell line, including HepG2 liver cancer cell, A549 lung cancer cell, Caco-2 colon cancer cell, MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Aim: To evaluate the cytotoxic effect of n-hexane fraction of M. oleifera (hMO) leaves on T47D breast cancer cells. Methods: The M. oleifera leaves were extracted using ethanol, then fractionated with n-hexane. The cytotoxic activity was determined using MTT assay. Apoptosis and cell cycle arrest were analyzed using flow-cytometry and expression of Bcl-2 and cyclin D1 were analyzed using immunocytochemistry. Results: Based on preliminary MTT assay, T47D treated with hMO demonstrated a medium cytotoxic effect and inhibited cell proliferation with an IC50 value of 235.58 µg/mL. Detection of apoptosis showed that hMO induced apoptosis mediated cell death in slow manner. In addition, hMO was also induce cell cycle arrest on G0-G1 and G2-M phase. Immunocytochemistry assay showed that the hMO decreased expression of anti-apoptosis protein, Bcl-2, and cell cycle regulator protein, cyclin D1, in concentration dependent manner. Conclusions: hMO has properties to induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest on T47D cells. hMO has a potential compound to be explored and developed as a chemo preventive agent for breast cancer. These results provide evidence for anticancer activity of M. oleifera leaves extract since it cause growth inhibition, induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest.