PRELIMINARY SCREENING OF METHANOLIC PLANT EXTRACTS AGAINST HUMAN RHABDOMYOSARCOMA CELL LINE FROM SALT RANGE, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of cell death by plant extract in the Rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cell line by using human muscle cancer cells as an experimental model. The optimal uptake of plant extracts in RD cells was investigated by means of spectrometric measurements, while cytotoxicity and cellular viability of the RD cells were estimated by means of neutral red assay (NRA). RD cells were exposed to plant extracts at the concentrations of 150µg/mL dissolved in dimethyle sulphoxide (DMSO) at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours. Results indicated that maximum cellular uptake was occurred after 1 hour in vitro incubation, while plant extracts induced killing of more than 70 to 80% of the cells at 150µg/mL. The methanolic extracts killed 88-93% cancer cells, while the chemo-drug killed 23% cells after 48 hours that clearly indicated anticancer activity of plant extracts. Based on the results, it can be concluded that further study is required to isolate and characterize bioactive compounds responsible for anti-cancer activity established by this study.