Evaluation of Cytotoxic Potential of Centaurea bruguierana against MDA-MB-468 Cell Line

Introduction: Cancer is known to be second cause of death in developing countries and is characterized by uncontrolled multiplication of the normal cells. 1 There are some drugs against cancer, but resistance, toxicity and low specificity lead researchers to find new drugs.2 Plants are the basic sources of lots of medicinal compounds; among them, Asteraceae is a herbal Family that exhibits antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, cytotoxic and other activities. 3 In the present study, cytotoxic effects of Centaurea bruguierana, was evaluated. Methods: Extracting Centaurea bruguierana, dry fruit-bearing branches powder was macerated with 80% methanol. Cytotoxic activity was assessed by MTT assay with different concentrations of the plant extracts. 4 The extracts were dissolved in DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) and further diluted with cell culture medium. The cells were seeded in 96-well flat bottom tissue culture plates at a density of approximately 8000 cells/well and incubated for 24 h at 37 °C. Cytotoxicity was expressed as the concentration of the extract inhibiting cell growth by 50% (IC50). Tamoxifen was included as the positive control. Each process repeated three times. Results: Finally, the methanol extract of Centaurea bruguierana showed cytotoxic effects against MDA-MB-468 cell line (IC50 = 59.45 μg/mL), in comparison to calculated IC50 of Tamoxifen equal to 14.6 μg/mL. Conclusions: The methanol extract of Centaurea bruguierana showed toxicity against MDA-MB-468 cell line; suggesting it as a suitable candidate for more investigations in breast cancer studies.