The Natural Product NI-07, Is Effective Against Breast Cancer Cells While Showing No Cytotoxicity to Normal Cells

ABSTRACT

With the exception of a few anticancer agents, most breast cancer chemotherapeutics currently used have devastating effects on normal cells. We investigated the effectiveness of the natural product NI-07, derived from Arctium lappa,to determine its killing potential on breast cancer cells and its cytotoxic effects in breast normal cells. The breast cancer cell lines HCC1419, MCF7, MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, SKBR3, the normal mammary epithelial cell line HME 50 HT and the normal mammary fibroblast cell line CCD-1074sk were analyzed in concurrently treated cultures of NI-07, Taxol™ or Untreated. NI-07- treated and Taxol™ -treated cells were cultured for two weeks to assess cell resistance/recovery. Cell viability was determined by cell counts, Trypan Blue exclusion and microscopy. Additionally, cell viability and cytotoxicity were measured by XTT. Statistical significance (p ≤ 0.05) of NI-07 to Untreated or Taxol™ was first determined using Two-Way ANOVA. Identified significant differences were further analyzed by One-Way ANOVA and Tukey's test for honestly significant differences. The effect size of NI-07 compared to untreated or Taxol™ was determined using Cohen's d. Our results showed significant declines in cell viability occurring in NI-07- treated cancer cells after 48 hours of treatment in contrast to the more rapid effect of Taxol™ (<24h). Additionally, cancer cell recovery was less effective in NI-07 versus Taxol™. Furthermore, NI-07 showed no cytotoxicity in normal cells. This lack of cytotoxicity, coupled with its killing efficiency in cancer cells, suggests that NI-07 could potentially make a strong anti-cancer compound or neo-adjuvant to current chemotherapy-based treatments.