Properties of <i>Linum usitatissimum</i> Seed Aqueous Extract Against Colon Cancer Cell Lines

Background: Colon cancer has been a rising health concern in the modern world for quite some time. Considering the harmful side effects of chemotherapy, the most common treatment for this cancer, new treatment methods are required to lessen the side effects of treatment on patients. Traditional and herbal medicine can help in this effort. Objectives: Our study investigated the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of Linum usitatissimum seed aqueous extract on colon cancer and the expression of apoptotic genes compared to normal cell lines to reduce chemotherapy's harmful and irreversible side effects on colon cancer patients. Methods: MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity of our extract on LS174T and COLO205 cells. Cancer and normal cell lines were treated with 2, 4, 6, and 8 mg/mL of LU extract for 24 and 48 hours. RNA extraction was performed, and mRNAs were reverse transcribed to cDNAs using RT-PCR. qPCR was then performed to assess the expression of BAX and BAD genes. Results: MTT assay concluded that this extract has a good cytotoxic effect on LS174t and COLO205 cell lines and can decrease cell viability, while no significant decrease in cell viability was observed in normal cells. For qPCR assay, the cells were treated with 0.5, 1, and 2 mg/mL of LU extract for two days. The qPCR analysis revealed that the expression of pro-apoptotic BAX and BAD was significantly decreased following treatment with our extract, while the expression of these genes showed no significant changes in normal cell lines after the same treatment. Conclusions: These results show that the components within L. usitatissimum seed aqueous extract have antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic properties. This extract can successfully decrease the population of LS174t and COLO205 cells while increasing the expression of pro-apoptotic BAX and BAD in these cell lines. The results also demonstrate that normal non-cancerous cells are unharmed by this extract. These results hint at some potential anti-cancer properties of L. usitatissimum seed aqueous extract.