In Vitro Cytotoxic Effects of Cuscuta chinensis Whole Extract on Human Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cell Line

• Main Authors: Fatemeh Zeraati, Alireza Zamani, Mohammad Taghi Goodarzi, Seyed Mansour Malakouti Hashjin, Kaivan Razzaghi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shiraz University of Medical Sciences 2010-12-01
• Series: Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences
• Subjects: Cuscuta; acute lymphoblastic leukemia; antitumor agent; MTT formazan
• Online Access: http://ijms.sums.ac.ir/files/PDFfiles/07-Dr_%20Zamani.pdf

Background: One of the major paths for drug development isthe study of bioactivities of natural products. Therefore, theaim of this study was to compare the cytotoxic effects ofaqueous extract of whole Cuscuta chinensis Lam., which is atraditional medicinal herb commonly used in Iran and otheroriental countries, on the human caucasian acute lymphoblasticleukemia (CCRF-CEM) and another human lymphocyte,Jurkat (JM) cell lines.Methods: In vitro cytotoxic screening with various concentrations(0, 0.1, 1, 10, 25 and 50 μg/ml) of the extract wasperformed using microscope and methyl tetrazolium bromidetest (MTT).Results: The minimum effective concentration of the plantextract was 1 μg/ml, and increasing the dose to 10 μg/mlinduced increasingly stronger effects. The inhibitory concentration50% (IC50) of the extract against CCRF wasabout 3 μg/ml in 24 hours and 2.5 μg/ml in 48 hrs. In contrast,the extract did not have cytotoxic effect for the JMcells at these doses.Conclusion: The findings of the present study suggest that C.chinensis is toxic against CCRF-CEM and JM tumor cells.Whether or not such effects can be employed for the treatmentof such tumors must await future studies.Iran J Med Sci 2010; 35(4): 310-314.