Effect of Black Raspberry on NF-κB and Caspase-3 Expression in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma versus keratinocytes and fibroblasts cell lines

Review: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), the most common type of intraoral cancers, is an important health issue. Most cytotoxic drugs have side effects on normal tissues beside being cytotoxic to malignant cells. Many studies demonstrated the ability of black raspberries (BRBs) to inhibit many types of cancer. However, understanding how the bioactive compounds in BRBs drive the metabolic and molecular pathways that lead to oral cancer chemoprevention remains unclear.
Aim of study: The current study aimed to investigate the consequences of BRBs treatment on (NF-κB) and caspase-3 expression in two types of head and neck SCC cell lines in comparison to both normal keratinocyte and fibroblast cell lines.
Results: There was an inhibitory effect of BRBs on both tested malignant cell lines (SCC9), and (HEp-2) and at the same time there was no effect on growth of the tested normal cell lines (HaCaT) and (BJ). There was a statistically significant increase in median fold change of caspase-3 in the tested malignant cell lines and a statistically significant decrease in the median fold change of NF-κB in the tested malignant cells with no detectable change for both antigens in the normal cell lines.
Conclusion: The results of the present study provide more evidence that BRBs have a very promising cytotoxic effect on oral cancer cell lines with no detectable harmful effect on normal cells.