Anticancer Activity of Flavanone Isolated from Citrus medica and its Combination Effect with a Synthetic Drug 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose

Cancer research is an on-going field aimed at discovering novel treatments for various stages of the disease. Although chemo and hormonal therapy have been found to be effective in treating cancer, there are still challenges draw a parallel with them, such as therapeutic resistance and repetitiveness, which make the disease difficult to control. Therefore, it is imperative to explore alternative therapies that can provide better treatment outcomes. The present research work towards the potential use of phytochemicals, particularly flavonoids found in Citrus medica leaves, as a treatment for breast cancer. Using chromatographic techniques, flavanone, a compound found in citrus extract, was isolated and its structure was characterized using UV, FTIR, HPLC, NMR, and MS analyses, as well as comparisons with literature. The anticancer activity of flavanone was evaluated using a standard MTT test against commonly used breast cancer cell(MCF-7). Additionally, the present study investigated the combination effect of flavanone with a synthetic drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG), on MCF-7 cells. The findings reveal that flavanone and the combined flavones with 2DG had IC50 values of 57.10 and 34.09µg/ml, respectively. This fusion study provides promising evidence that the combined effect of flavanone with a synthetic drug may enhance treatment effectiveness by improving drug transport and reducing the required dose. Additional study is required to confirm these results and investigate phytochemicals' potential as a replacement therapy for breast cancer.