research_landpaper3

Evaluation on the Effect of Ganoderma lucidum (Leyss.ex Fr) Karst. Extracts on p53, Bcl-2 and Bax mRNA Expression on Cultured Mammalian Cells

                                                                Jarunya Ngamkham*, Mati Rienkitjakarn and Porntipa Picha
                                                     Research Division, National Cancer Institute, Bangkok 10400 Thailand

                                                                              Abstract


                  Ganoderma lucidum is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine herb and widely used as an herbal medicine for promoting vitality and longevity in China and other Asian countries. It has also been used for the prevention or treatment of a variety of diseases including cancer. In this study, we investigated the effect of ethanol and water extracts from G. lucidum underlying anticancer activities and apoptosis-related gene expression on cultured mammalian cancer cell lines. The anticancer activities was undertaken with total cell protein determination method on two cancer cell lines, human mammary carcinoma; MCF-7 and human cervical carcinoma; HeLa. The results were expressed by median effective dose (ED50). The apoptosis-related gene expression was analyzed by using semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique on MCF-7 and HeLa cells. The relative intensity of PCR product from p53, Bcl-2 and Bax gene were quantified and normalized with house-keeping gene; β-actin.
                   From our investigation, the ethanol and water extracts showed the proliferation inhibitory effect on cultured mammalian cancer cells. The ethanol extract exhibited ED50 values at 208.83+7.28 mg/ml and 303.61+5.11 mg/ml on MCF-7 and HeLa cell, respectively, while the extracts from water exerted ED50 values at 438.69+14.31 mg/ml and 671.43+3.37 mg/ml on MCF-7 and HeLa, respectively. Both extracts from G. lucidum reduced cell viabilities in a dose-dependent manner on three cancer cell lines. The results from semi-quantitative RT-PCR assay indicated that the expression of p53 and Bax mRNA in MCF-7 and HeLa were increased, whereas the expression of Bcl-2 mRNA was slightly decreased.

Our findings demonstrated that the ethanol and water extracts from G. lucidum slightly exhibited anticancer activities and induced the apoptosis-related gene expression. Therefore, further investigation on cellular and molecular levels and also in the animal tumor model is promising. In addition, further studies on preclinical and clinical with G. lucidum are required to validate this herbal medicine for prevention and treatment of cancer.

ตีพิมพ์ในวารสารโรคมะเร็ง Volume 29, Number 1, Jan-Mar, 2009 หน้า 13-24 (Thai Cancer J 2009; 29: 13-24)