PO-029 Supercritical carbon dioxide extract of mucuna pruriens inhibits brain cancer tumour growth in rats

• Published in: ESMO open Vol. 3; no. Suppl 2; p. A239
• Main Authors: Costa, AC Cunha, Oliveira, LOD, Dorea, MA, Leite, GMO, Amorim, RPD, Neto, EDS Martins, Júnior, Lima Nascimento, Silva, RC, Silveira, EL, Fontelles, MJ
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-07-2018
• ISSN: 2059-7029; 2059-7029
• DOI: 10.1136/esmoopen-2018-EACR25.564

IntroductionWalker 256 tumour (W256) is commonly used in experimental studies to analyse beneficial effects of medicinal plants found in the Amazon as Mucuna pruriens. This plant possesses several properties as their use in Parkinson’s disease, general antineoplastic effects and antioxidant activity. Therefore, this experiment aims to evaluate brain tumour inhibition effect of M. pruriens extract in rats.Material and methodsM. pruriens seeds powder was extracted with supercritical carbon dioxide extract (SC-CO2).The right caudate nucleus was located using the following coordinates:AP=1,5 mm; DV=5 mm; LL=2,5 mm. Subsequently, 7 × 106 tumour cells were inoculated into the animals’ brains through stereotaxic surgery. Male Rattus norvegicus were randomised into 3 groups (n=5):1.Control group (CG)–W256 inoculated rats; 2.Mucuna group (MG)–W256 inoculated and treated with M. pruriens extract (250 mg/kg);3.Tamoxifen group (TG)–W256 inoculated and treated with Tamoxifen (20 mg/kg). Intraperitoneal administration in treated groups occurred during 7 days, on the eighth day euthanasia was performed by decapitation. For microscopic evaluation, brain tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin/eosin.Body weights were recorded in the groups sequentially on every day during the treatment period until euthanasia.After euthanasia, animals’ blood was collected to analyse Creatine phosphokinase (CPK) levels in the samples.Statistical analysis was assessed by ANOVA and Tukey test.Results and discussionsM. pruriens extract inhibited brain tumour growth in all treated rats.The histopathological analysis in MG presented normal brain tissue appearance without neoplastic cells formation and the smallest amount of congestive areas in nervous tissue. In TG an important inflammatory reaction in meninges occured even without tumour formations.Unlike the treated groups, CG presented a focal tumour growth with neoplastic cells infiltration in the subarachnoid space.The tumour inhibition effect caused a body weight maintenance exclusively in MG, whereas in CG and in TG a significant weight decrease was observed.This result is related to the attenuation of cachexia, whose stimulator is primarily the tumour itself.However, CPK levels were higher in MG (7701 U/L) in comparison to CG (3602 U/L) and TG (1204 U/L).As observed, this high proteolysis was not able to cause weight loss in the animals because in this group tumour mass formation did not occur.ConclusionM. pruriens extract had an important and significant antineoplastic effect in brain tissue.