In Vitro Analysis of Bacosine as Novel Therapeutic Agent for Murine Breast Cancer

The anti-metastatic activity of bacosine (Bacopa monnieri plant) was studied using 4T1 murine breast cancer cell line by targeting matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) which plays important role in invasion and metastasis. The inhibitory concentration (IC50) of bacosine for 4T1 cell line was 21 μM, which indicates that it is toxic to cancer cell line. The effect of different concentrations (10, 21 and 50 μM) of bacosine on metastatic matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) gene expression of 4T1 murine breast cancer cells was studied by real time PCR. At high concentrations of bacosine (21 and 50 μM) MMP-9 gene expression was down-regulated after 24 h of treatment in a concentration dependent manner. The effect of bacosine on apoptosis was evaluated by annexin binding assay which showed anti-apoptotic effect in early and late apoptotic stages of cancer cells. These results suggest that bacosine plays a role in regulating cell metastasis by inhibiting MMP-9 and showing anti-apoptotic effect in breast cancer cells.