Anti-proliferative and Apoptotic Effects of Dendrosomal Farnesiferol C on Gastric Cancer Cells

Abstract

Farnesiferol C is a natural compound with various anti-cancer properties that belongs to the class ofsesquiterpene coumarins. However, the low bioavailability of farnesiferol C limits its therapeutic potential.Here, we overcame this problem utilizing dendrosome nano-particles and evaluated the anti-cancer effect ofdendrosomal farnesiferol C (DFC) on the AGS gastric cancer cell line. The 3-(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) wererespectively used to detect the anti-proliferative properties of DFC and expression ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 as a hallmarkof apoptosis. Compared to the void farnesiferol C (FC), our data showed that DFC significantly suppresses theproliferation of AGS cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner (P<0.01). Also, DFC meaningfully increased theexpression ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 in AGS cells (P<0.01). The findings demonstrate that our nano-based formulationof farnesiferol C could be considered as a potential therapeutic agent in cancer targeting.