Abstract:
Background:
Tea (
Camellia sinensis
) infusions are widely consumed beverages with numerous health benefits.
However, physiological and molecular responses mediating these activities are poorly understood.
Method:
Three replicates of
4TI
cancer cell suspension (2.0 × 10
5
cells/ml) were challenged in vitro with various
concentrations of green, black and purple tea infusions to assese
s their cytoxicity and associated differentially expressed
genes in the cells. Inhibitory activity was tested by using serial dilutions of respective tea infusions in a 96 well ELISA plate.
Results:
Green tea had the highest inhibition on
4TI
cells proliferation at a concentration of IC
50
= 13.12
μ
g/ml. Further
analysis of the
4TI
cancer cell line treated with tea using 454 pyrosequencing generated 425,696 reads with an input
mean length of 286.54. Trimmed sequences were import
ed on a CLC genomic workbench v7.03 and annotated on a
reference mouse genome (
Mus musculus
strain
C57BL/6 J
). Results revealed a differential expression of apoptosis related
genes in the transcriptome.
Casp8, Casp9, Casp3, Casp6, Casp8AP2, Aifm1, Aifm2
and
Apopt1
genes were significantly
upregulated indicating the process of apoptosis was initiated and executed.
Conclusion:
These findings on caspases offer valuable informat
ion on the mechanism of tea as an anticancer agent and
will contribute to further research in future novel treatments.
