Antitumor activity of Ankaferd Blood Stopper® on MCF-7 breast cancer: A proteomic approach to ascertain the mechanism of the action

Ankaferd Blood Stopper® (ABS) is a non-toxic product comprising solely herbal extracts. It is approved by the Turkish Ministry of Health to be used to stop external and internal bleeding immediately. Together with its wound healing and antimicrobial features; the anti-neoplastic effect of the compound on different cancer types was also demonstrated previously. This study aimed to explore the anti-tumor effect of ABS on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. A proteomic approach was chosen to investigate the alteration of the levels of cancer-related proteins of MCF-7 upon subjection to ABS. The proteins were extracted after the 24 h incubation of the cells with the compound (8 μL/mL) and sorted by 2-DE gel electrophoresis. Subsequently, the proteomic profiles of the samples were compared by image analysis. The proteins which were found to be significantly over- or under-expressed were identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS. Proteomic studies revealed that ABS caused a deviation in the levels of certain proteins including chaperones, p97, ATP5B, SELENBP1, PDIA6, and RPS10P5. The proteins that were significantly up- or down-regulated were further analyzed by using MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS. ABS was validated to target certain proteins that were aberrantly expressed in breast cancer, especially the ER + subtype. Thus, it can be concluded that this product may be employed for the treatment of breast cancer given its non-toxic and anti-tumor characteristics.