title: Anti Proliferative Properties of Melissa officinalis in Different Human Cancer Cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medicinal plants, especially examples rich in polyphenolic compounds, have been suggested to be chemopreventive on account of their antioxidative properties. Melissa officinalis L. (MO), an aromatic and medicinal plant, is well known in thios context. However, toxicity against cancer cells has not been fully studied. Here, we investigated the selective anticancer effects of an MO extract (MOE) in different human cancer cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  a hydro-alcoholic extract of MO was prepared and total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) were determined by colorimetric assays. Antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH radical scavenging activity. MTT assays were used to evaluate cytotoxicity of different doses of MOE (0, 5, 20, 100, 250, 500, 1000 μg/ml) towards A549 (lung non small cell cancer cells), MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma), SKOV3 (ovarian cancer cells), and PC-3 (prostate adenocarcinoma) cells.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant (P<0.01) or very significant (P<0.0001) differences were observed in comparison to negative controls at all tested doses (5-1000 μg/ml). In all cancer cells, MOE reduced the cell viability to values below 33%, even at the lowest doses. In all cases, IC50 values were below 5μg/ml. The mean growth inhibition was 73.1%, 86.7%, 79.9% and 77.8% in SKOV3, MCF-7 and PC-3 and A549 cells, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that a hydro-alcoholic extract of MO possess a high potency to inhibit proliferation of different tumor cells in a dose independent manner, suggesting that an optimal biological dose is more important than a maximally tolerated one. Moreover, the antiprolifreative effect of MO seems to be tumor type specific, as hormone dependant cancers were more sensitive to antitumoral effects of MOE.
authors: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Maragheh, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran E-mail : jahanbanr@tbzmed.ac.ir.
authors: Akram
authors: A
authors: Jahanban-Esfahlan
authors: Sina
authors: S
authors: Modaeinama
authors: Mozhgan
authors: M
authors: Abasi
authors: Mehran Mesgari
authors: MM
authors: Abbasi
authors: Rana
authors: R
authors: Jahanban-Esfahlan
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000188:drug therapy; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D008297:Male; D031334:Melissa / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D010636:Phenols / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D005419:Flavonoids; D010636:Phenols; D010936:Plant Extracts