Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Glioblastoma is the primary cause of death due to brain tumors and there is an urgent need to find an alternative therapy using herbal extracts for it. Plant based medicines are a reliable source of drugs as they heal synergistically with minimum or no side effects. In the present investigation a strong bio-efficacy of Nardostachys jatamansi DC rhizome extract on human glioblastoma cell lines U87 MG and U373 MG has been seen. Bioassays conducted with methanolic extract of dried rhizomes after 24, 48 and 72 hours of the treatment revealed that the IC50 value as obtained through the absorbance versus dose plot of MTT assay was around 40 μg/mL. Drug 50 μg/mL was able to induce DNA fragmentation in the cells indicating apoptosis. The necrotic cells were differentiated from the apoptotic cells using Acridine orange and Ethidium bromide differential fluorescence staining which revealed that the key process of cell death was apoptosis and the dose as low as 20 μg/mL of the drug was able to induce early apoptosis, whereas higher doses exhibited complete apoptosis. The drug also exhibited a cell cycle arrest at G1/G0 phase at higher doses such as 60 μg per mL and 80 μg per mL as determined through flow cytometry. DAPI staining of the cells after drug treatment exhibited severe DNA damage at 60 μg/mL and 80 μg/mL concentrations along with excessive nucleation and mitotic catastrophe at even lower doses such as 20 μg per mL and 40 μg per mL. These studies have proved that the plant extract has a strong cytotoxic potential against Glioblstoma and the response was dose and time dependent. Incidentally, the extract was seen to be harmless to the normal cell line HEK. This is our first report proving strong anti-cancerous activity of the Nardostachys jatamansi rhizome extract.

Biography

Himanshi Kapoor has completed her MSc in Botany from the University of Delhi. She is currently a PhD Scholar in Professor Veena Agrawal’s Laboratory at the Department of Botany, University of Delhi. She is a CSIR-UGC SRF working on anti-cancerous medicinal plants. She has published one paper and attended one international conference and one national conference.

Email: himanshi.kapoor28@gmail.com