Affiliation:
1. School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, 5001, Australia
Abstract
Marine molluscs from the family Muricidae are the source of a homeopathic remedyMurex, which is used to treat a range of conditions, including cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate thein vitrobioactivity of egg mass extracts of the Australian muricidDicathais orbita, in comparison to theMurexremedy, against human carcinoma and lymphoma cells. Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to characterize the chemical composition of the extracts and homeopathic remedy, focusing on biologically active brominated indoles. The MTS (tetrazolium salt) colorimetric assay was used to determine effects on cell viability, while necrosis and apoptosis induction were investigated using flow cytometry (propidium iodide and Annexin-V staining, resp.). Cells were treated with varying concentrations (1–0.01 mg/mL) of crude and semi-purified extracts or preparations (dilute 1 M and concentrated 4 mg/mL) from theMurexremedy (4 h). TheMurexremedy showed little biological activity against the majority of cell lines tested. In contrast, theD. orbitaegg extracts significantly decreased cell viability in the majority of carcinoma cell lines. Flow cytometry revealed these extracts induce necrosis in HT29 colorectal cancer cells, whereas apoptosis was induced in Jurkat cells. These findings highlight the biomedical potential of Muricidae extracts in the development of a natural therapy for the treatment of neoplastic tumors and lymphomas.
Subject
Complementary and alternative medicine
Cited by
26 articles.
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