Antitumoral activity of Asparagus officinalis extracts against breast cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent cancer among women and high rate of resistance and loss of response to treatment enhance the attention in novel drug research, mainly from natural origins. Asparagus officinalis (Asp) is reported to possess therapeutic proprieties, both from edible and inedible portions. We characterized the chemical content of new aqueous extracts derived from the non-edible portion of the plant and we assayed the biocompatibility and bioactivity in vitro on normal fibroblasts and on cellular models of BC. Results showed no interference with fibroblast viability, while a significant reduction in the proliferation rate associated with significant G1/S cell cycle arrest and low levels of apoptosis, was specifically observed in breast cancer cells. Asp extracts were also shown to significantly inhibit cell migration after 24 hours treatment in BC cells, in a osedependent matter. Additional investigation showed that Asp extracts exert specific pro-oxidant activity against tumoral cells, and, notably, that their combination with enadione resulted in a significant increasing of oxidants production compared with menadione alone only in in breast cancer cells (but not in normal cells). Our results make the aqueous Asp extracts very attractive for further investigation in breast cancer research. The selectivity of action on tumoral cells and the easiness of their preparation make them good candidates to test role as co-adjuvant agents of clinical drug therapies.