Naringenin inhibits migration, invasion, induces apoptosis in human lung cancer cells and arrests tumour progression in vitro

Lung cancer is one of the major cause for high‐death rate all over the world, due to increased metastasize and difficulties in diagnosis. Naringenin is naturally occurring flavonoid found in various fruits including tomatoes, citrus fruit and figs. Naringenin is known to have several therapeutic effects including anti‐atherogenic, antimicrobial, anti‐inflammatory, hepatoprotective, anticancer and anti‐mutagenic. The present study was aimed to analyse the naringenin induced anti‐proliferative and apoptosis effects in human lung cancer cells. Cells were treated with various concentrations of naringenin (10, 100 & 200 µmol/L) for 48 hours. Cisplatin (20 µg/mL) was used as positive control. Cell viability, apoptosis, migration and mRNA, and protein expression of caspase‐3, matrixmetallo proteinases‐2 (MMP‐2) and MMP‐9 were determined. The cell viability was 93.7 ± 7.5, 51.4 ± 4.4 and 32.1 ± 2.1 at 10, 100 and 200 µmol/L of naringenin respectively. Naringenin significantly increased apoptotic cells. The 100 and 200 µmol/L of naringenin significantly suppressed the larger wounds of cultured human cancer cells compared with the untreated lung cancer cells. Naringenin increased d the expression of caspase‐3 and reduced the expression of MMP‐2 and MMP‐9. Taking all these data together, it is suggested that the naringenin was effective against human lung cancer proliferation, migration and metastasis.