Background: Black Raspberry has a wide range of pharmacological and therapeutic aspects including anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. Moreover, the effect of Black Raspberry has been studied in many cancers such as human cervical, esophageal and colorectal cancer and showed cytotoxic and anti-proliferative effects against these types of cancer.
Aim: To identify the possible anti-cancer effect of Black Raspberry on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma cell line.
Material and methods: Human tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell line was divided into 3 groups: one control group, second group treated with Black Raspberry, and the third group treated with Doxorubicin, each of the two treatments was applied for 24, 48, 72 hours, respectively. Then, cellular viability was measured using Microculture Tetrazolium assay, cell cycle analysis was done using Flow Cytometry and eventually, apoptotic activity was evaluated using Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent assay.
Results: Black Raspberry succeeded to decrease the percentage of viable and proliferating cells with increasing time. On the other hand, it increased the percentage of apoptotic cells and levels of caspase-3.
Conclusion: Black Raspberry has a potential cytotoxic effect on oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line in a dose and time dependent manner, and exerts this action through induction of apoptosis, and its action is comparable to Doxorubicin action.