Effect of Cyperus rotundus extract on the regulation of TNF-α and IFN-γ in a 4T1 triple-negative breast cancer mouse model

¹ Department of Biology, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, 60231 Surabaya, Indonesia
² Master Program, Department of Biology, Universitas Brawijaya, 65145 Malang, Indonesia
³ Department of Biology, Universitas Brawijaya, 65145 Malang, Indonesia
⁴ Research Center for Vaccine and Drug, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), 16911 Bogor, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

Cyperus rotundus is a traditional oriental medicine with high pharmaceutical activity. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive and malignant kind of breast cancer. This study aims to identify the immunomodulatory effect of Cyperus rotundus extract (CRE) by analyzing the production of TNF-á and IFN-ã from T cells and macrophages in 4T1-tumor-bearing mice. The extraction of CRE uses maceration methods with ethanol. This study involved 30 female BALB/c mice (Mus musculus), aged 6 - 7 weeks, which were acclimated for one week before being randomly assigned to six groups: (1) Normal - healthy, untreated mice; (2) Cancer - 4T1-tumor-bearing, untreated mice; (3) Cisplatin - 4T1-tumor-bearing mice treated with cisplatin (4 mg/kg BW); (4) CRE1 - 4T1-tumor-bearing mice treated with Cyperus rotundus extract (72.5 mg/kg BW); (5) CRE2 - treated with 145 mg/kg BW; and (6) CRE3 - treated with 290 mg/kg BW. Cisplatin was administered intraperitoneally once a week for two weeks, and CRE was administered orally daily for two weeks. This study found that a dose of 145 mg/kg CRE suppressed TNF-á production in CD8 cells by 19% (from 11.47% to 9.28%, p<0.01) and decreased IL-10 from Treg by 41% (from 4.65% to 2.73%, p<0.05) compared to the Cancer group. Therefore, it can be concluded that CRE has immunomodulatory activity on 4T1-tumor-bearing mice as a model of TNBC in animals.