BACKGROUND: During the past few years, Hesa-A, a herbal-marine mixture, has been used to treat cancer as an alternative medicine in Iran. Based on a series of studies, it is speculated that Hesa-A possesses special cytotoxic effects on invasive tumors. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the selective anticancer effects of Hesa-A on several cancer cell lines with different metastatic potential. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hesa-A was prepared in normal saline as a stock solution of 10 mg/ml and further diluted to final concentrations of 100 μg/ml, 200 μg/ ml, 300 μg/ml and 400 μg/ml. MTT-based cytotoxicity assays were performed with A549 (lung non small cancer), MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma), SKOV3 (ovarian cancer), and PC-3 (prostate adenocarcinoma) cells. RESULTS: All treated cancer cells showed significant (P<0.01) or very significant (P<0.0001) differences in comparison to negative control at almost all of the tested doses (100-400 μg/ml). At the lower dose (100 μg/ml), Hesa-A reduced cell viability to 66%, 45.3%, 35.5%, 33.2% in SKOV3, A549, PC-3 and MCF-7 cells, respectively. Moreover, at the highest dose (400 μg/ml), Hesa-A resulted in 88.5%, 86.6% , 84.9% and 79.3% growth inhibition in A549, MCF-7, PC-3 and SKOV3 cells, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Hesa-A exert potent cytotoxic effects on different human cancer cells, especially those with a high metastatic potential.
BACKGROUND: During the past few years, Hesa-A, a herbal-marine mixture, has been used to treat cancer as an alternative medicine in Iran. Based on a series of studies, it is speculated that Hesa-A possesses special cytotoxic effects on invasive tumors. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the selective anticancer effects of Hesa-A on several cancer cell lines with different metastatic potential. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hesa-A was prepared in normal saline as a stock solution of 10 mg/ml and further diluted to final concentrations of 100 μg/ml, 200 μg/ ml, 300 μg/ml and 400 μg/ml. MTT-based cytotoxicity assays were performed with A549 (lung non small cancer), MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma), SKOV3 (ovarian cancer), and PC-3 (prostate adenocarcinoma) cells. RESULTS: All treated cancer cells showed significant (P<0.01) or very significant (P<0.0001) differences in comparison to negative control at almost all of the tested doses (100-400 μg/ml). At the lower dose (100 μg/ml), Hesa-A reduced cell viability to 66%, 45.3%, 35.5%, 33.2% in SKOV3, A549, PC-3 and MCF-7 cells, respectively. Moreover, at the highest dose (400 μg/ml), Hesa-A resulted in 88.5%, 86.6% , 84.9% and 79.3% growth inhibition in A549, MCF-7, PC-3 and SKOV3 cells, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Hesa-A exert potent cytotoxic effects on different humancancer cells, especially those with a high metastatic potential.