Antiproliferative activity of total extracts from annona squamosa, petiveria alliacea and punica granatum on cancer cell lines

The highest cancer mortality rates in Colombia are associated with prostate, breast, cervix, lung, and colon cancer. The treatments used such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, in some cases are not efficient and cause collateral effects that deteriorate the life quality of the affected people. Currently, in the world, there has been an increase in research directed to the treatment of cancer using secondary metabolites obtained from plants, either as a direct treatment or as a complement to traditional treatments. In the present research work, we determined the cytotoxic activity of total extracts of Annona squamosa, Petiveria alliacea, and Punica granatum on breast, lung, cervix, prostate, and colon cancer cell lines. A preliminary phytochemical analysis was carried out on the total extracts obtained from the plants under study to determine the type of molecule associated with the activity. The cytotoxic activity was determined by the Tetrazolium Bromide method (MTT) on the cell lines MDA-MB231 (breast cancer), PC3 (prostate cancer), SiHa (cervical cancer), A549 (lung cancer), and HT29 (colon cancer). As result of the study, it was found that the ethanolic extract of Annona squamosa seeds presented the highest cytotoxic activity against the different cancer cell lines. The mean inhibitory concentration of the cell population (IC50) corresponded to 17.54 μg / mL for MDA-MB231; 13.07 µg / mL for PC3; 39,68 µg / mL for A549; 16.09 μg / mL for SiHa, and 19.74 μg / mL for HT29. Additionally, morphological changes were evidenced on the cytoskeleton and mitochondria of the different cancer cells treated with the ethanolic extract of Annona squamosa seeds using immunofluorescence microscopy. The results obtained are promising for the development of an adjunctive treatment to traditional treatments for different types of cancer and suggest that these extracts could also have an effect on other types of cancer.