An Antioxidant Polysaccharide from Ganoderma lucidum Induces Apoptotic Activity in Breast Cancer Cell Line

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the apoptotic activity of Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide (GLP) in a human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 in vitro. According to DPPH assay, GLP showed a good antioxidant (IC50 value is 202.4 g/mL). Based on MTT assay, the results showed that GLP inhibits MCF-7 cells proliferation in a dose- and time-dependent manner (p<0.001). IC50 values of the cytotoxicity of GLP and doxorubin were 110.907 g/mL and 58.206 g/mL respectively. The results from the flow cytometry indicated that GLP could induce apoptotic activity through inducing the up-regulation of the Bax and Caspase-9 and the down-regulation of the BcL-2 in MCF-7 cells. At 2xIC50, GLP increased the early-apoptotic and dead cells of MCF-7 from 18.23% to 34.76% and 8.45% to16.34% respectively. In conclusion, the GLP shows anticancer activity against MCF-7 through preventing the proliferation and inducing the apoptosis of MCF-7 cells. Our data provide the potential molecular targets in cancer prevention and reveal the key barriers in the current anticancer drugs development.