Abstract:

Breast cancer is a significant global health challenge, requiring continuous exploration of new treatments. Asarone, a bioactive compound from the Acorus genus, shows promising anticancer properties but its effects on breast cancer cells are underexplored. This study investigates asarone's anticancer potential against breast cancer cell lines using in vitro and in silico approaches. Asarone's antioxidant activity was evaluated using DPPH radical scavenging assays, revealing a dose-dependent (25.56, 32.18, 47.73, 54.83 and 66.74%) effect on free radicals. MTT assays showed a dose-dependent decrease in cell viability, indicating asarone's cytotoxicity towards breast cancer cells. mRNA expression analysis showed that targeting apoptosis regulators such as Bax (1, 1.3, 1.52 fold change upregualtion) and Bad (1, 1.4, and 1.6 fold upregulation) gene expression demonstrated that asarone induces apoptosis via the intrinsic pathway. Additionally, asarone inhibited Akt mNRA (1, 0.6, and 0.4 fold change down regulation), caspase-3 (1, 1.4, and 1.7 upregulation) and cytochrome-c mRNA (1, 1.2 and 1,54 fold change upregulation) suggesting interference with key cancer progression pathways. Molecular docking studies predicted favorable binding interactions between asarone and crucial proteins involved in apoptosis and cell survival, including Bax, Bad, cytochrome c, caspase 3, and Akt. These findings collectively highlight the multifaceted anticancer mechanisms of asarone against breast cancer cells. This study underscores the potential of asarone as a natural therapeutic agent for breast cancer, offering avenues for further exploration in translational research and clinical trials. The current study significantly advances our understanding of asarone's anticancer properties, offering promising directions for developing new and effective breast cancer therapies.

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