Biotechnology

Biography

Biography: Himanshi Kapoor

Abstract

Glioblastoma is the primary cause of death due to brain tumours and there is an urgent need to find an alternative therapy using herbal extracts for it. Plant based medicines are a reliable source of drugs as they heal synergistically with minimum or no side effects. In the present investigation a strong bio-efficacy of Nardostachys jatamansi DC rhizome extract on human Glioblastoma cell lines U87 MG and U373 MG has been seen. Bioassays conducted with methanolic extract of dried rhizomes after 24, 48 and 72 hours of the treatment revealed that the IC50 value as obtained through the absorbance versus dose plot of MTT assay was around 40 µg/mL. Drug 50 µg/mL was able to induce DNA fragmentation in the cells indicating apoptosis. The necrotic cells were differentiated from the apoptotic cells using Acridine orange and Ethidium bromide differential fluorescence staining which revealed that the key process of cell death was apoptosis and the dose as low as 20 µg/mL of the drug was able to induce early apoptosis, whereas higher doses exhibited complete apoptosis. The drug also exhibited a cell cycle arrest at G1/G0 phase at higher doses such as 60 µg per mL and 80 µg per mL as determined through flow cytometry. DAPI staining of the cells after drug treatment exhibited severe DNA damage at 60 µg/mL and 80 µg/mL concentrations along with excessive nucleation and mitotic catastrophe at even lower doses such as 20 µg per mL and 40 µg per mL. These studies have proved that the plant extract has a strong cytotoxic potential against Glioblstoma and the response was dose and time dependent. Incidentally, the extract was seen to be harmless to the normal cell line HEK. This is our first report proving strong anti-cancerous activity of the Nardostachys jatamansi rhizome extract.