Organizing co mmittee

 
Sevgi Gezici
a*
, Nazim Sekeroglu
b 
 
a
 Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep 
University, 27310, Gaziantep-Türkiye,
E-mail: 
[e-mail]
; 
[e-mail]
 
b 
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Literature, 27310, Gaziantep 
University, Gaziantep-Türkiye,
E-mail: 
[e-mail]
, 
[e-mail]
 
 
 
The use of traditional and complementary medicine practices has become increasingly 
important in the world, especially for cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. Dragon 
fruit, also called pitaya, is a tropical plant and belongs to the cactus family (Cactaceae). Dragon 
fruit usually grows in tropical forests. Mexico, South America, Thailand and Vietnam are the 
homeland of this fruit. The fruits of the genus Hylocereus are called sweet pitaya. The skin color 
and the fruit’s inside varies depending on the species. The skin can be red or yellow, and the 
fruit can be purple, red, or white. The genus Hylocereus generally includes three species: (1) 
Hylocereus undatus
(white pitaya), (2) 
Hylocereus costaricensis
(Costa Rican pitaya), (3) 
Hylocereus megalanthus
(yellow pitaya). These fruits have a nutritional content particularly rich 
in active secondary metabolites, giving them pharmacological properties. In this study, 
H. 
undatus
fruits were extracted with distilled water (dH
2
O), ethanol (EtOH, 70%) and methanol 
(MeOH, 70%). The aim was to determine the cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities 
mediated by apoptosis and necrosis pathways of the extracts. In this context, 3-(4,5-
dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) analysis was performed to 
investigate anti-cancer potential of the extracts against human colon adenocarcinoma (HT29), 
colon (HCT-116), and colorectal adenocarcinoma (SW480) cells. The anti-inflammatory 
capacities of various extracts of dragon fruit against cyclooxygenase enzymes (COX-1 and 
COX-2) were investigated using the COX inhibitor kit. Doxorubicin and ibuprofen were used as 
positive controls to determine the anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory activities, respectively. All 
conditions and chemicals were the same as described in our previous research. In addition, 
apoptotic activity in the cells treated and untreated with the fruit extracts was analyzed in terms 
of DNA fragmentation using the ‘Apoptotic DNA-Ladder Kit’. All experiments were performed 
at least in triplicate, and linear regression analysis was performed to calculate IC
50
values for 
each cell line. The results showed that white pitaya fruits are able to induce growth inhibition 
and apoptosis. MTT and COX assays revealed dose- and time-dependent anti-cancer and anti-
inflammatory effects against human colon cancer cells. The EtOH extracts obtained from the 
fruit exerted the highest anticancer activity against HT29, closely followed by SW480 colorectal 
adenocarcinoma cells. In contrast to the anti-cancer and cytotoxicity results, the dH
2
O extract 
also caused the highest apoptosis and DNA fragmentation in a dose- and time- dependently.
Besides increasing extract concentration causing to decrease in the growth rate of the cancer 
cells, apoptosis was observed almost in all the human colon cancer cells, which rapidly 
exhibited signs of apoptotic cell death as detected by DNA fragmentation. Regarding in vitro 
evaluation of COX activity, which gives information about the inflammation, the results found a 
similar activity profile as observed in MTT assay. In conclusion, the results revealed that the 
extracts of the white dragon fruit
 
could have remarkable anticancer and anti-inflamatuvar 
activities through enhanced apoptosis in colon cancer cells. The data obtained from this research 
should be validated using further 
in vitro
and 
in vivo
analyses.