Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Martin, Dr. Patrick M.

Abstract

Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of breast cancer, has abnormal therapeutic results; leading to the need for unique treatment methods. Currently TNBC has no specific targeted therapy and has limited response to other chemotherapeutics. Plant extracts have shown to be useful as chemopreventive agents due to their disruption of pro-survival and proliferative mechanisms on cancer cells. Rosehip extracts have shown anti-proliferative activity against cancer cells in vitro. We hypothesized that rosehip extracts will inhibit cell proliferation in triple negative breast cancer cell lines at varying concentrations. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the effect of rosehip extracts as anti-proliferative agents in African American TNBC cell lines (HCC1806 and MB157), luminal breast cancer cell lines (HCC70 and HCC1500), and a primary breast cell line (AG11132) as a model for non-cancerous tissues. To determine the inhibitory role of rosehip extracts in cell proliferation, MTT assays were conducted, following treatment with varying concentrations of rosehip extracts (1mg/ml, 250ug/ml, 25ug/ml, and 25ng/ml) for 48 hours. The data suggests that rosehip extracts, can significantly decrease cell proliferation. Western blot analysis was used to investigate which signaling pathway rosehip extracts were affecting. Western blot analysis suggests that rosehip extracts are inhibiting p70 S6 kinase phosphorylation and its ability to act as a kinase for S6 ribosomal protein. Preliminary data suggests that Rosehip Methanol extracts may have a synergistic effect with Doxorubicin, a known chemotherapeutic, in cell lines lacking the progesterone receptor. Overall, rosehip extracts decrease cell proliferation in African-American breast cancer cell lines, by decreasing phosphorylation along the PI3K signaling pathway. Rosehip extracts may have the potential to serve as a neoadjuvant therapeutic in the chemotherapeutic realm.

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