- BIUSTRE Home
- →
- Electronic Theses and Dissertations
- →
- Faculty of Sciences
- →
- View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Gaobotse, Goabaone | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Makhzoum, Abdullah | |
| dc.contributor.author | Brown, Donald Phenyo | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-08-21T08:59:26Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-08-21T08:59:26Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-06 | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Brown, D.P.(2023) Cytotoxicity and gene expression mediated Antiproliferative potential of selected medicinal plants of Eastern Botswana, Masters Theses, Botswana International University of Science and Technology: Palapye | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://repository.biust.ac.bw/handle/123456789/634 | |
| dc.description | Thesis (MSc Biological Sciences and Biotechnology)--Botswana International University of Science and Technology, 2023 | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Cancer is a global problem, which contribute to many deaths annually when compared to other non-communicable diseases. Amongst women in Botswana, cervical cancer has the highest incidence and mortality rate. Literature has shown that medicinal plants have potential cytotoxicity on cancer cells. A literature survey with consultations of traditional healers coupled with identification and verification by Botswana National Herbarium led to the selection of five medicinal plants of Botswana for the investigation of their potential cytotoxicity on cancer cells. The identified plants were Elephantorrhiza elephantina (Burch.) Skeels, Azanza garckeana (F.Hoffm.) Exell & Hillc , Withania somonifera (L.) Dunal, Tribulus terrestris L. and Portulaca oleracea L. whose identities were verified by the Botswana National Museum Herbarium. The plants were collected in the Central and Kweneng Districts of Botswana. The plants were crudely extracted with water, ethanol and methanol and the extracts were applied on cervical cancer cells (HeLa). MTT and WST-1 assays (cell viability assays) were carried out on the treated HeLa cells and morphological changes were then observed. During morphology analysis, the cells were treated with the lowest and highest concentrations of extracts used in serial dilutions in cell viability assays for a period of 24 hours. Gene expression analysis was performed on treated cells for cancer markers MACC1, VEGF, EGFR, CYFRA 21-1 and the tumor suppressor gene CD95; all normalized to GAPDH. A. garckeana ethanol and methanol extracts had CC50 values of 1.8 and 1.88 mg/mL respectively while aqueous extracts had cell viability not exceeding 50%. P. oleracea ethanol and aqueous extracts both had CC50 values of 2.38 mg/mL while methanol extracts had 5.2 mg/mL. T. terrestris ethanol and aqueous extracts showed CC50 values of 9.6 and 6.7 mg/mL respectively with methanol extracts cell viability of below 50%. E. elephantina had CC50 values of 6.9, 4.6 and 5.6 mg/mL for ethanol, water and methanol extracts respectively. W. somnifera had CC50 values of 42.0, 32.5 and 52.5 mg/mL for ethanol, aqueous and methanol extracts respectively. Morphologically, signs of detachment, cells becoming more spherical and dying were observed on all treatments of all extracts but were more prominent in the P. oleracea aqueous extracts for 1.7725 mg/mL and 28.36 mg/mL treatments of all the extraction solvents. Gene expression analysis revealed that P. oleracea aqueous extracts led to the most down regulation of EGFR, MACC1, VEGF and CYFRA21-1 and the most upregulation of CD95 with fold decreases of 0.44, 0.4, 0.35, 0.38 and a fold increase of 0.32 for these genes respectively. T. terrestris aqueous extracts led to fold decreases as follows; EGFR = 0.3, MACC1 = 0.29, VEGF = 0.3, CYFRA21-1 = 0.35 with a CD95 fold increase of 0.27. A. garckeana aqueous extracts displayed fold decreases as follows; EGFR = 0.3, MACC1 = 0.31, VEGF = 0.28, CYFRA21-1 = 0.29 and a CD95 fold increase of 0.25. E. elephantina aqueous extracts led to fold decreases as follows; EGFR = 0.15, MACC1 = 0.2, VEGF = 0.17, CYFRA21-1 = 0.2 and CD95 fold increase of 0.16. W. somnifera aqueous extracts led to fold decreases as follows; EGFR = 0.2, MACC1 = 0.2, VEGF = 0.1, CYFRA21-1 = 0.22 and a CD95 fold increase of 0.18. Cisplatin (positive control) gave a 0.8 fold decrease in the xiv expression of EGFR, MACC1, VEGF and CYFRA21-1 and a 0.77 fold increase in CD95 expression. In conclusion, findings of this study have shown the potential cytotoxicity on HeLa cells of selected plant extracts through their evidenced suppression of cancer marker expression as well as their induction of antitumour activity through the upregulation of CD95. Additionally, extracts from the selected plants appeared to suppress the proliferation of cancer cells through their supposed interruption of cell attachment in culture and induction of cell death. Findings of this study warrant future investigation of extracts of the plants that showed the greatest cytotoxic potential through the purification of these extracts and the identification of their individual phytochemicals. Furthermore, potential anticancer ingredients may be manufactured from these phytochemicals based on the synergistic effects of different combinations of these phytochemicals on cancer cells. | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) | en_US |
| dc.subject | Cervical cancer | en_US |
| dc.subject | HeLa cells | en_US |
| dc.subject | MACC1 | en_US |
| dc.subject | VEGF | en_US |
| dc.subject | CD95 | en_US |
| dc.subject | Antitumor activity | en_US |
| dc.subject | Phytochemicals | en_US |
| dc.title | Cytotoxicity and gene expression mediated Antiproliferative potential of selected medicinal plants of Eastern Botswana | en_US |
| dc.description.level | msc | en_US |
| dc.description.accessibility | unrestricted | en_US |
| dc.description.department | bsb | en_US |
Files in this item
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
-
Faculty of Sciences
This collection is made up of electronic theses and dissertations produced by post graduate students from Faculty of Sciences