B-cyclocitral extracted from gallium mite (a medicinal herb) and the evaluation of its effect in MCF-7 cell lines.

Abstract Carotenoids play an important role as antioxidants, and induction of gene expression changes leads to plant acclimation to environmental stresses. Βetacyclocitral (BCC) derived from gallium mite in the process of β-carotene oxidation has recently been shown to have a new function in breast cancer treatment. In this project, we used a drug loaded delivery released system (DDRS) strategy coupled with superparamagnetite nanoparticles (SNPs) based on graphene quantum dots (GQDs) synthesis to deliver drugs to tumor sites. The validation of synthesized SNPs was implemented with several techniques such as Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). MCF-7 cell lines were treated with GQD, β-cyclocitral and GQD@β-cyclocitral (each with concentration of 3.93, 7.87, 15.75, 31.25, 62.5, 125, 250, 500, and 1000 µg/ml) in the MTT assay at 24 and 48 h, respectively. IC50% was calculated at 24 h. Results indicated that β-cyclocitral had prominent effects in controlling breast cancer cell lines.