Acute and subacute toxicity studies of a new herbal formula induced apoptosis in the highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 cells

Breast cancer is one of the major causes of cancer deaths worldwide, and survival rate remains low even with the advancement of screening and treatment methods. Polyherbal medicines have been widely used for cancer treatment. CBBh and SNH are two new polyherbal formulations that showed anticancer effects.MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells were used for in vitro investigation. After treatments with CBBh and SNH, the proliferation and apoptosis of cells were detected by MTT assay, fluorescent microscopy, and Muse cell analyzer. The acute and subacute toxicities were studied following Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was applied for analysis of chemical constituents of the extract.CBBh extract inhibited proliferation of MCF-7 (IC50: 109.7 μg/mL) and MDA-MB-231 (IC50: 71.1 μg/mL) cancer cells, whereas the IC50 value for SNH was higher than 400 μg/mL against both cancer cell lines. The percentages of apoptotic cells following treatment with 200 and 300 μg/mL for 24 h were 38.9 ± 2.8% and 76.2 ± 2.1% MDA-MB231 cells respectively, versus 0.07% and 5.21% respectively in vehicle-treated cells. No acute or subacute oral toxicity was observed. CBBh extract was tolerated in concentrations up to 2000 mg/kg. Acute and subacute histopathological examination of the liver and kidneys revealed no abnormalities in their architecture.The new polyherbal formula CBBh could suppress breast cancer through apoptosis. Therefore, our findings could provide a novel herbal formula for the treatment of breast cancer.