Abstract

Background and Objectives

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common malignancy among children. The use of natural compounds has invoked a lot of interest in treatment of malignancies due to the adverse effects of chemotherapy treatment. Artemisia annua was reported to show cytotoxic effects on various cancer cell lines. In this study, cytotoxic effects of Artemisia annua extract were investigated on acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell lines.  

Materials and Methods

In this basic research, Nalm-6 and Reh cells were cultured and then treated with various concentrations of Artemisia annua extract; afterwards, the cell viability was evaluated using MTT assay for 48 and 72 h. The Caspase 3 activity assay and flow cytometry following Annexin V and Propidium iodide staining were used to assess apoptosis. Statistical analysis was evaluated by one-way ANOVA test.

Results

A. annua extract showed IC50 of 90 µg/ml on Nalm-6 and IC50 of 70 µg/ml on Reh cells after 48 h; the cytotoxic effect after 72 h was noticeable (p < 0.001). Flow cytometry results also show that A. annua extract concentration of 40 µg/ml increases the percentage of apoptotic cells compared with control groups (p < 0.05). Significant increase in Caspase 3 activity was observed after treatment with Artemisia annua compared with control groups (p < 0.01).

Conclusions 

Our results show that methanolic extract of aerial parts of A. annua exerting cytotoxic and inhibitory effects on Nalm-6 and Reh cells.

Key words: Acute Lymphoid Leukemia, Artemisia annua, Apoptosis