The present study attempts to investigate the cytotoxic activity of ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts of the Moroccan Berberis\nvulgaris and its major component berberine, together with exploring their antioxidant properties. It also consists of studying the\ncombination effect of berberine and S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP), a nitric oxide (NO) donor, against the human\nbreast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7). Using the MTT assay, we report a differential cytotoxic effect of ethanol and ethyl\nacetate extracts since the ethanol extract is more cytotoxic than the ethyl acetate one, with IC50 3.54 Ã?¼g/mL and 596.71 Ã?¼g/mL,\nrespectively. Interestingly, no cytotoxic effect was observed against normal cells. Furthermore, these extracts showed a remarkable\nantioxidant activity as measured by the DPPH free radicals scavenging assay. In fact, the IC50 values are 69.65 Ã?¼g/mL and\n77.75 Ã?¼g/mL for the ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts, respectively. In addition, several concentrations of berberine, when\ncombined with the NO donor used at IC30, induced a synergistic cytotoxic activity at concentrations ranging from 8.40 Ã?¼M to\n33.60 Ã?¼M, as revealed by the combination index values, using the Chouââ?¬â??Talalay method. However, at the other concentrations\ntested, an antagonistic effect was observed. The observed cytotoxicity was related to apoptosis induction as demonstrated by the\nannexin-V-streptavidin FITC-staining analysis.
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