Berberine, a natural plant product, Inhibits Cell Growth in Human Cancer cells compared with healthy cells

Abstract

Berberine, an isoquinoline derivative alkaloid, has recently been shown to have cytotoxicity and antitumor activity. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of Berberine at different concentrations (400, 200, 100, 50, 25µg/ml) on cell culture (PA-1:ovary derived from metastatic site, PC-3:Prostate cancer cell line, A375:skin cancer cell line, and WRL-68: human hepatic normal cell, by cytotoxicity and DNA damage, through MTT assay and alkaline comet assay. The results of cytotoxicity showed that berberine induced a decrease in the viability of PA-1: ovary-derived compared with the WRL-68: human hepatic normal cell at 400 and 200 µg/ml of berberine. And indicated that tail length, tail DNA%, and Tail mean moment were significantly different in different concentrations of berberine at 400, 200 µg/ml, when compared with the control non-treatment.  These results suggest that berberine can reduce DNA damage and cytotoxicity.