Effects of plant products and nicotine in colon cancer cells
Jessica Graham, Mary Emmanuel and Bidisha Sengupta
Department of Chemistry and Physics, Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS
Nicotine (NIC) is a tobacco alkaloid and a majorcomponent of E-cigarettes. NIC causes injury of various organs which include prostate,kidney, as well as colon. Our earlier in vitro studies confirmed that NIC stimulates mitochondrial ROS production, which leads to a mitochondrial depolarization- dependent injury of renal proximal tubule cells. Since the popularity of E-cigarettes is on the rise, it may further increases risk in the relevant population. In this study we are aiming to find out a dose dependence of nicotine exposure on the human colon cells. We chose HCT-116 colon cancer cells. 0.1, 1, 10, 100, 200, 400 and 800µM nicotine in ethanol were used to dose the cell. Flavonols and related phenolic compounds of the flavonoid group are ubiquitous in plants of higher genera and are abundant in common plant-based foods and beverages such as citrus fruits, apple, strawberry, soy products, onion, broccoli, tea and red wine. Flavonoids protect various cell types from oxidative stress via different mechanisms. The most recognized mechanism is their direct antioxidant activity, which involves scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and peroxynitrite. Additionally, flavonoids elicit indirect antioxidant activity through transcriptional induction of genes with antioxidant properties such as heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) or the mitochondrial manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD. Our hypothesis is that the position of the hydroxyl group play crucial role in imparting antioxidant activity against oxidative stress induced by nicotine. We used a flavonolmorin and banana peel extract(BE) for this study. Phase contrast imaging and cell viability assays are performed, where we noticed no significant change in cell morphology and viability with nicotine. However at higher concentrations of morin and BE, cell viability is reduced. Further biochemical assays are underway.
This work was funded by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the NIGMS under grant number P20GM103476. BS also likes to thank NSF-RIA award 1800732 and TIP award 1818528 for research support.