Anticancer effects of Moringa oleifera Lam. leaf extracts on the human breast cancer cells

Abstract

Moringa oleifera Lam. (MO) is a medicinal plant distributed in many tropical and subtropical countries as well as Thailand. MO has a variety of bioactive compounds that exerts multiple biological activities, including anti-cancer and immunomodulatory activity. The present study aims to identify the potential anti-cancer compounds from the MO leaf against MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and to explore the regulatory effect of this bioactive compound on the progression of human macrophage polarization. MO leaf was subjected to extraction, fractionations, and screening of anticancer effect using multi-bioassay guided. The most promising fraction was selected for sub-fractionation and identification of bioactive compounds using LC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS. There were 10 candidate compounds tentatively identified, and oleamide exhibited the strongest anti-cancer activity by inducing cell cycle arrest and triggering apoptosis through suppression of Bcl-2 and activation of caspase 3. Moreover, how oleamide influences macrophage polarization was explored using in vitro culture of primary human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) model. Results showed that oleamide promoted naïve macrophages (M0) toward the M1 phenotype by upregulating M1-associated genes, along with downregulation of M2-associated genes (Arg-1, CD206, CCL22). Oleamide was found to promote the production of IL-1ß by activating the NLRP3 inflammasome. Finally, the effect of oleamide on the reprogramming of Tumor-Associated Macrophages (TAMs) was investigated using the Transwell co-culture model. Results demonstrated that oleamide enhances the switching of tumor-promoting M2-like into the tumoricidal M1-like TAM phenotype with increasing HLA-DR gene expression and IL-1ß production. In conclusion, oleamide could be a potential anticancer agent and immunomodulating agent.

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