Effect of Insect Tea on Tongue Cancer Cells

Background: Insect tea is usually consumed as a traditional drink or as a type of traditional Chinese medicine in China. The purpose of this chapter was to see how effective insect tea is against in vitro cancer cells.

Materials and Methods: Insect tea anti-cancer effects were evaluated in cells of the human language carcinoma TCA8113 using 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-tiazoll)-2.5-diphenyltetrazoly bromide (MTT), analysis of cytometry flow, nuclear coloring with 4.6-diamino-2-phenyldinol (DAPI), reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western bolt analysis.

Results: At the concentration of 200 ug/mL, the inhibition rate of insect tea on TCA8113 cells was 80.7%, which was higher than that of 100 ug/mL insect tea, but lower than that of 200 ug/mL green tea. The results of DAPI staining and flow cytometry analysis showed that compared with the control group, wormwood tea obviously induced apoptosis (P < 0.05). Insect tea can significantly induce apoptosis of cancer cells by upregulating BAX, CASP3, CASP9 and downregulating BCL2. The genes encoding activated B cell nuclear factor k-light chain enhancer (NF-B), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase -2 (COX-2) were significantly down-regulated by insect tea, which proved its anti-inflammatory properties. Insect tea also has a good anti-metastasis effect on cancer cells, which shows that the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) gene decreases and the expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) increases.

Conclusion: The experimental results show that insect tea has good anticancer effect in vitro, such as green tea.