The Effects of the Herbal Enzyme Bromelain against Breast Cancer Cell Line GI101A

Bromelain is a proteinase derived from the stem of pineapple and has been studied for its anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, and antimetastatic properties. Bromelain has also been known to significantly reduce local tumor growth and to raise the impaired cytotoxicity of monocytes in the immune system against tumor cells. The goal of this project is to advance the mechanistic knowledge of herbal remedies and to confirm the already known antimetastatic properties of Bromelain. Standardization of MTS assay to check the cell viability is in progress. To test the cytotoxic effects of Bromelain, GI101A breast cancer cells cultured to the required confluency of about 60% in 96 well plates were treated with different concentrations of Bromelain. The MTS assay method was used 24 hours after Bromelain treatment to detect the absorbance at 490nm in relation to cell death. Cells with no Bromelain treatment served as the positive control and RPMI 1640 media without cells served as the negative control. The absorbance at 490nm wavelength is directly proportional to the number of living cells in culture. The preliminary data illustrates that as the concentration of Bromelain was increased beyond the 1 μM concentration, the cytotoxicity potential also increased. Further confirmation of the cytotoxicity will be achieved by using the ATPase assays and DAPI staining technique that will indicate apoptotic cell death