Evaluation of Anti-Neoplastic Effects of a New Hemostatic Agent Ankaferd Blood Stopper on Myeloma Cell Line and Plasmocytoma Development in Balb/c Mice: Results of the First in Vitro and in Vivo Study

Ankaferd Blood Stopper (ABS), a unique traditional herbal mixture, has been used topically to stop bleeding for centuries in Anatolia. As well as ABS has been used as a blood-stopping agent, it may also have a considerable therapeutic benefit, because of its anti-infective, anti-neoplastic, and wound healing properties. The aim of this study is to investigate the anti-neoplastic effects of the ABS on myeloma cell line, in vitro and on the plasmocytoma development in Balb/c mice by intraperitoneal injection of pristane, in vivo. We therefore sought to evaluate the efficacy of ABS on MM cells and to study the modulation of cell-death pathways. The cytotoxicity of ABS against the MM cell lines (RPMI-8226, and ARH-77) was determined by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide-dye reduction assay. Responses to ABS by RPMI-8226 and ARH-77 cell lines were dose dependent but not time dependent. The IC₅₀ values for RPMI 8226 and ARH 77 myeloma cell lines in 24h were 12,84 μL/mL and 13,86 μL/mL, respectively. Various cell-death characteristics such as caspase-3, Bcl-2, Bax were studied in response to ABS, but we couldn’t demonstrate specific features of apoptotic cell death, in vitro. We have also investigated the effect of the ABS on the pristane (2.6.10.14-tetramethylpentadecane)-induced plasmacytoma (PCT) development on six-week-old BALB/c mice. Three groups of mice were treated with intraperitoneal ABS (1 mg/kg, 0.5mg/kg, and 0,1mg/kg) per-week for eight weeks after pristane-induced PCT development. The study was stopped at twelfth week, the remaining mice were autopsied, and peritoneal tissues were examined histologically for PCTs. A database of different groups’ mice was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression statistics based on variables. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a difference of the survival of pristane-induced alone between the groups of pristane-induced plus ABS 1 mg/kg, 0.5mg/kg, and 0.1mg/kg. (Log-rank, p=0.016; p<0.001 and p<0.001; respectively). The present results indicate that direct anti-tumor effect of ABS on pristane-induced PCT and significantly increased survival. This hypothesis needs to now be further investigated in clinical trials.