2024-2025 Research Grant

Brian Wong (Biology)

Selective Induction of Apoptosis by Aqueous Extract of Chinese Medicinal Herbs Scutellaria Barbata and Oldenlandia Diffusa in HCT 116 Colon Cancer Cells and CCD 841 CoN Colon Epithelial Cells

Scutellaria barbata (SB) and Oldenlandia diffusa (OD) have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for treating liver, lung and rectal tumors. Other researchers demonstrated their effects in regulation of various apoptotic enzymes and pathways. In USA, colorectal cancer ranks 3rd in both incidence and death among male and female. In this study, we will investigate the effects of aqueous extracts of SB and OD on the induction and modulation of apoptosis in HCT 116 colon cancer cells and CCD 841 CoN normal color epithelial cells using Apoptosis/Necrosis Detection assay and Human Apoptosis Antibody Array - Membrane (43 Targets) test (Abcam). Our preliminary data demonstrated that both the 3-hours and 6 hours of 1.5 mg/mL SB treatments induced apoptosis in HCT 116 colon cancer cells significantly, p < 0.05; while there was no notable induction of apoptosis in normal CCD 841 CoN colon epithelial cells. A similar selective induction of apoptosis, in the two cell lines separately, was obtained from the 3-hours and 6 hours of 1.5 mg/mL OD respectively. We will also study the modulation of various apoptosis markers production to examine potential up-regulation of Bax, BID, Bad, p27, p53, Caspases 8 and 3; and down-regulation of Bcl-2 and Bcl-w which led to the apoptosis observed in the trial. These result would suggest that SB and OD contain phytochemicals which selectively induce apoptosis in HCT 116 cancer cells by modulating these markers while not significantly affecting the normal CCD 841 CoN colon epithelial cells. Further study of their specific modulation effects and phytochemicals on apoptosis is warranted to reveal their potential chemopreventive and therapeutic properties against colon cancer and other cancers.