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. 2023 Feb 6;59(2):301.
doi: 10.3390/medicina59020301.

ACE2-Inhibitory Effects of Bromelain and Ficin in Colon Cancer Cells

Babak Pakbin  1   2 , Shaghayegh Pishkhan Dibazar  2 , Samaneh Allahyari  2 , Hanifeh Shariatifar  3 , Wolfram Manuel Brück  4 , Alireza Farasat  2   5
Affiliations

ACE2-Inhibitory Effects of Bromelain and Ficin in Colon Cancer Cells

Babak Pakbin et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Bromelain and ficin are aqueous extracts from fruits of Ananas comosus and Ficus carcia plants, used widely for medical applications. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is a homolog of ACE, degrading Ang II to angiotensin 1-7 and decreasing the cellular concentration of Ang II. Materials and Methods: In this study, we investigated the ACE2-inhibitory, antiproliferative, and apoptosis-inducing effects of ficin and bromelain on caco-2 cells. Results: We found that bromelain and ficin significantly reduced the viability of human colon cancer cells with IC50 value concentrations of 8.8 and 4.2 mg/mL for bromelain after 24 and 48 h treatments, and 8.8 and 4.2 mg/mL for ficin after 24 and 48 h treatments, respectively. The apoptosis of the caco-2 cell line treated with bromelain was 81.04% and 56.70%, observed after 24 and 48 h. Total apoptotic proportions in caco-2 cells treated with ficin after 24 and 48 h were 83.7% and 73.0%. An amount of 1.6 mg/mL of bromelain and ficin treatments on caco-2 cells after 24 h revealed a higher decrease than that of other concentrations in the expression of ACE2 protein. Conclusions: In conclusion, bromelain and ficin can dose-dependently decrease the expression of ACE2 protein in caco-2 cells.

Keywords: ACE2-inhibitory; bromelain; caco-2 cell line; ficin.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cell viability of caco-2 cells under exposure to different concentrations of bromelain evaluated by MTT assay after 24 (A) and 48 h (B) treatments. Alphabetical letters indicate significant differences.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cell viability of caco-2 cells under exposure to different concentrations of ficin evaluated by MTT assay after 24 (A) and 48 h (B) treatments. Alphabetical letters indicate significant differences.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Apoptotic analysis of caco-2 cells treated with bromelain (negative control samples (A), after 24 h (B), and after 48 h (C) of treatment) by using the flow cytometry method.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Apoptotic analysis of caco-2 cells treated with ficin (negative control samples (A), after 24 h (B), and after 48 h (C) of treatment) by using the flow cytometry method.
Figure 5
Figure 5
ACE2 concentrations (optical density (OD) at 450 nm) in caco-2 cells under exposure to different concentrations of bromelain evaluated by MTT assay after 24 (A) and 48 h (B) treatments. Alphabetical letters indicate significant differences.
Figure 6
Figure 6
ACE2 concentrations (OD at 450 nm) in caco-2 cells under exposure to different concentrations of ficin evaluated by MTT assay after 24 (A) and 48 h (B) treatments. Alphabetical letters indicate significant differences.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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