ETD Collection

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    Evaluating the anti-proliferative effects of methanol and butanol extracts of lobostemon fruticosus on a pancreatic cancer cell line AsPC-1
    (2017) Blose, Malangu Sibusiso
    Cancer has become a problematic fatal disease in developing and industrialised countries with pancreatic cancer as the seventh leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with an average survival rate of less than 5%. Environmental risk factors associated with pancreatic cancer include smoking, obesity, diet, alcohol etc. Furthermore, pancreatic cancer is commonly diagnosed at a late stage where its response to current anti-cancer agents is poor. Consequently, with South Africa being a 3rd world country and the cost of chemotherapy being so high, this has led to us trying to identify new, cheaper therapeutics for cancer cells. A majority (80%) of the South African population relies on traditional medicines, hence in this study we aimed to assess Lobostemon fruticosus for anti-proliferative effects on pancreatic cancer cell line (AsPC-1). This was achieved by the use of methanol and butanol extracts of L. fruticosus to screen for induction of apoptosis and inhibition of cell proliferation. The plant was collected, dried, crushed and dissolved in butanol and methanol to obtain experimental extracts. Cytotoxicity of the plant on Aspc-1 was determined using MTT Assay, xCELLigence and cell cycle analysis. MRC-5 cell line was used as a positive control cell line. L. fruticosus extracts induced cell death at IC50 of 60µg/ml (methanol extract) and 50µg/ml (butanol extract) at 48hour treatments on AsPC-1 cell line. Western Blots showed that the methanol and butanol extracts of L. fruticosus led to slight upregulation of the apoptotic gene p53 in AsPC-1 cell line, which was further confirmed by FACS apoptosis detection. Cell cycle analysis further showed the plant extracts do promote cell cycle arrest. LC/MS of the extracts gave spectra of active compounds presumed to play a role in induction of apoptosis on the pancreatic cancer cell line. The data obtained implies that the methanol and butanol extracts of L. fruticosus does have, to a certain extent, growth inhibiting and apoptosis inducing potential on the pancreatic cancer cell line. KEYWORDS: Lobostemon fruticosus, Pancreatic Cancer, methanol extract, butanol extract, AsPC-1