Issue 3, 2015

Selective anti-cancer effects of palm phytonutrients on human breast cancer cells

Abstract

Palm oil contains a number of phytonutrients. To date, most of the studies using palm phytonutrients have focused on palm vitamin E. The objective of this study was to compare the anti-cancer activities of four major palm phytonutrients, namely tocotrienol-rich fraction, carotenoids, squalene and co-enzyme Q10 using some cell-based assays. Two human breast cancer cell lines, the highly aggressive triple-negative MDA-MB-231 and the estrogen-dependent MCF-7 cells, were treated with these palm phytonutrients to determine their anti-cancer effects. Palm vitamin E exhibited higher ability to induce cell death by apoptosis in both human breast cancer cells compared to the other palm phytonutrients (carotenoids, squalene and co-enzyme Q10), which was absent in normal NIH/3T3 cells. In addition, there was higher cleavage of the poly-adenosine diphosphate-ribose polymerase (PARP) enzyme in palm vitamin E-treated MDA-MB-231 cells compared to the other phytonutrients. All the tested palm phytonutrients suppressed the expression of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B-cells (NF-κB) protein in the breast cancer cells exposed briefly to tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Palm phytonutrients possess varying extent of anti-cancer effects on the human breast cancer cells.

Graphical abstract: Selective anti-cancer effects of palm phytonutrients on human breast cancer cells

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Oct 2014
Accepted
25 Nov 2014
First published
26 Nov 2014

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 1745-1753

Author version available

Selective anti-cancer effects of palm phytonutrients on human breast cancer cells

R. Loganathan, A. K. Radhakrishnan, K. R. Selvaduray and K. Nesaretnam, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 1745 DOI: 10.1039/C4RA12343C

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