Assessment of chemical composition and in vitro and in silico anticarcinogenic activity of bee bread samples from Eastern Anatolia (Kars)

In this study, aqueous extracts of bee bread samples collected from five different regions in Eastern Anatolia (Kars, Turkey) were obtained by ultrasonic wave-assisted extraction method. Moisture, ash, acidity and pH values of bee bread samples were measured. Phenolic components of aqueous extracts were determined by LC-HRMS method. The cytotoxicity of these extracts on colon (DLD-1), breast (MCF-7), cervix (HeLa) and prostate cancer (PC-3) cells was determined by the MTT method. The interactions of genistein, naringenin and vitamin C, which are major components of the extracts, with important cancer targets such as human thymidylate synthase, c-MYC transcription factor, cyclin-dependent kinase and androgen receptor prostate cancer targets were investigated by Molecular Docking method. According to the findings, all extracts caused higher cytotoxicity on MCF-7 cancer cells compared to other cell lines, while they caused low cytotoxicity on PC-3 cells. Molecular Docking results show that the naringenin compound, whose anticarcinogenic effects have been supported by previous studies, may be a successful agent in inhibiting the active sites of selected cancer cell targets. When all these results are evaluated, it is recommended that the antitumoral effect of bee bread for the treatment of cancer disease be supported by further studies.