Anti-Tumor promoting effects of Lebanese medicinal plants on HACAT Keratinocytes

Abstract

Skin cancer, despite its numerous accredited therapeutic procedures, continues to constitute a worldwide dilemma whose prevalence rather than being subject to suppression is shifting towards witnessing a global and substantial expansion almost counterbalancing all other collective cancer occurrences. Accordingly, systematic investigations are currently being directed in an attempt to establish novel skin cancer eradication routes whereby medicinal herbs attributed essential oils are proposing themselves as preeminent and superlative alternative treatment candidates. Grounded on the examination of the published literature, in our study we evaluated the antineoplastic efficacy of Juniperus excelsa, Lavandula vera, and Salvia libanotica essential oil on skin cancer progressive stages via the inspection of several parameters such as cell vitality and proliferation. In order to attain the former target aim, trypan blue exclusion tests and MTT assays where performed following 24 and 48 hour essential oil treatments on the HaCaT in-vitro skin cancer paradigm consisting of the control non-tumorigenic HaCaT, benign A5, and low grade malignant II4 keratinocytes. Our methodological results demonstrated that within a defined range of concentrations, Juniperous excelsa displays non-differential, dose and time independent effects on different skin cancer stages while outstandingly, low doses of each of Lavendula vera and Salvia libanotica exhibit cytotoxic and growth inhibitory influences on malignant keratinocytes while sparing normal control keratinocytes. These findings highlight the potential anticancer activity of Lavendula vera and Salvia libanotica, and propose the former essential oils as foundations for the development of novel potential therapeutic agents against skin carcinogenesis.