Abstract 3820: Changes in the transcriptome of a triple negative breast cancer cell line following treatment with a water-soluble extract from the leaves of the indigenous Southern African plant Tulbaghia violacea

Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for approximately 20% of all breast cancer cases. And is defined by the absence of oestrogen, progesterone, and human epidermal growth factor 2 receptors. This makes it difficult to treat and leads to a low five-year survival rate. In South Africa a large percentage of the population still relies on traditional medicine based on the use of medicinal plants. One of these plants, African garlic (Tulbaghia violacea), that has been used to treat symptoms similar to that observed in cancer. However, the usefulness of these treatments has yet to be clinically proven. Previous studies have revealed that the water-soluble extract from the leaves of T. violacea had anticancer activity against a TNBC cell line. In order to identify the signalling pathways involved in this anti-cancer activity whole transcriptome sequencing was performed using RNA extracted from both TNBC and normal breast cells before and after treatment with the water-soluble T. violacea extract. Paired end sequencing was performed at a depth of 10 million bases for 300 cycles. Data analysis was performed using the Galaxy platform/Sequencing results led us to perform an antibody array assay for proteins involved in the receptor tyrosine kinase pathway. In line with the increased levels of apoptosis previously observed following treatment of the TNBC cell line with the extract, there was an increase in the transcription of genes associated with apoptosis. Decreases were observed in the transcription of genes involved in growth receptor signalling, angiogenesis, and cancer related pathways such as the Wnt, Notch and the PI3K pathway. This work highlights the pathways affected by compounds present within a water-soluble extract of the leaves of T, violacea. Combined with the results of our [previous work, this indicates that the compounds isolated from T, violacea could serve as lead compounds for the development of future therapeutic treatments for TNBC.

Citation Format: Zodwa Dlamini, Rodney Hull, Mohammed Alouna, Clement Penny. Changes in the transcriptome of a triple negative breast cancer cell line following treatment with a water-soluble extract from the leaves of the indigenous Southern African plant Tulbaghia violacea. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 3820.