BioMed Central Blog

Tunisia: Plant extracts from Nitraria retusa induce apoptosis in human cancer cells

Plant extracts have long been used in traditional medicines to treat a variety of ailments and diseases.  One such plant is Nitraria retusa, a salt-tolerant bush native to the deserts of Northern Africa.  Its ashes have the ability to remove fluids from infected wounds and, in Morocco, the leaves are used to treat cases of poisoning, upset stomach, ulcers, gastritis, enteritis, heartburn, colitis and colonic abdominal pain.  The effectiveness of these remedies was often cast into doubt and they became labelled as ‘alternative therapies’.  More recently, however, studies into plant compounds have found that they may have a role to play in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer.

The evasion of apoptosis through the blocking of cell signaling pathways has long been established as a common feature of cancer cells.  Certain plant extracts have been shown to activate apoptotic pathways and it is thought that these could play an important role in the treatment of cancer by promoting the apoptosis of cancerous cells and restricting the concurrent death of normal cells.

New research conducted in at the University of Monastir in Tunisia and published in Cancer Cell International looks at the effectiveness of extracts from N. retusa to induce apoptosis in human cancer cells.  The cytotoxic effects of hexane, chloroform and methanol extracts on human chronic myelogenous erythroleukaemia (K562) cells were analysed and compared by investigating DNA fragmentation, poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage and caspases 3 and 8 inducing activities.  The study shows that the three tested extracts induced apoptosis by the activation of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway and suggests that N.retusa may have potential as a therapeutic agent for leukaemia. 

Posted by Philip Dooner at 14:25    Comments (0)