Evaluation of Synergetic Anticancer Activity of Berberine and Curcumin on Different Models of A549, Hep-G2, MCF-7, Jurkat, and K562 Cell Lines

Ayurvedic system of medicine is using Berberis aristata and Curcuma longa herbs to treat different diseases including cancer. The study was performed to evaluate the synergetic anticancer activity of Berberine and Curcumin by estimating the inhibition of the cell proliferation by cytotoxicity assay using MTT method on specified human cell lines (A549, Hep-G2, MCF-7, Jurkat, and K562). All the cells were harvested from the culture and seeded in the 96-well assay plates at seeding density of 2.0 × 10(4) cells/well and were incubated for 24 hours. Test items Berberine with Curcumin (1 : 1), Curcumin 95% pure, and Berberine 95% pure were exposed at the concentrations of 1.25, 0.001, and 0.5 mg/mL, respectively, and incubated for a period of 48 hours followed by dispensing MTT solution (5 mg/mL). The cells were incubated at 37 ± 1°C for 4 hours followed by addition of DMSO for dissolving the formazan crystals and absorbance was read at 570 nm. Separate wells were prepared for positive control, controls (only medium with cells), and blank (only medium). The results had proven the synergetic anticancer activity of Berberine with Curcumin inducing cell death greater percentage of >77% when compared to pure curcumin with <54% and pure Berberine with <45% on average on all cell line models.