Determination of anti-cancer effects of Nigella sativa seed oil on MCF7 breast and AGS gastric cancer cells

Background: This study aimed to investigate the cytotoxic, apoptotic, invasion, metastasis, and heat shock proteins (HSPs) effects of N. sativa oil on breast and gastric cancer cells. Methods: We assessed the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of various concentrations of N. sativa oil (10-50-100-200 µg/mL) on MCF7 breast cancer and AGS, an adenocarcinoma of the gastric cell line, at 24, 48 and 72 h using the MTT test. Additionally, the expression of the Caspase-3, BCL2/Bax, MMP2-9 and HSP60-70 gene was examined using RT-PCR in cell lines treating with N. sativa. Results: The MTT experiments demonstrate that N. sativa has a time and dose-dependent inhibitory effect on the proliferation of MCF7 and AGS cancer cells. The vitality rates of MCF7 and AGS cells treated with N. sativa were 77.04–67.50% at 24 h, 65.28–39.14% at 48 h, and 48.95–32.31% at 72 h. The doses of 100 and 200 µg/mL were shown to be the most effective on both cancer cells. RT-PCR analysis revealed that N. sativa oil extract increased caspase-3 levels in both cell lines at higher concentrations and suppressed BCL2/Bax levels. Exposure of MCF7 and AGS cell lines to N. sativa caused a significant decrease in the expression of MMP2-9 and HSP60-70 genes over time, particularly at a dosage of 200 µg/mL compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings indicate that N. sativa oil has a dose-dependent effect on cytotoxicity and the expression of apoptotic, heat shock proteins, and matrix metalloproteinases genes in breast and gastric cancer.