Study on 6-gingerol in ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.) complete extract and its molecular effects on HTC-116 colorectal cancer cell line

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.) is a spicy medicinal plant with antioxidant, antitumor, and anticancer properties. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of ethanol extract of fresh ginger rhizome on inhibiting HCT-116 colon cancer cells and the expression of TGFBR2 and DDC genes as tumor suppressor genes and β-Actin gene as reference gene. HPLC analysis was used to identify and measure the amount of 6-gingerol in the extract. Toxicity of different concentrations of the complete extract (0, 10, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, and 500 μg.ml-1) on the HTC-116 cell line was investigated using the MTT test, 16 and 24 hours after the start of the test (at 16 and 24). The expression of TGFBT2, DCC, and β-Actin genes was assessed by RT-PCR after treatment with concentrations of 150 and 300 μg.ml-1 of the complete extract at 16 and 24 hours. The amount of 6-gingerol was obtained 86.2 ± 2.03 mg per 100 g dry weight of ginger ethanol extract powder based on the HPLC results. The MTT test results showed that IC50 was 80.44 at 16 h and 473.19 at 24 h. Cell mortality was significantly increased at concentrations of 150 and 300 μg.ml-1 of the extract. Also, expression of the TGFBT2 and DCC genes increased at 150 μg.ml-1 at both 24 and 16 hours significantly (P<0.01). The present research proved the ginger extract effect on tumor inhibitory genes induction in HCT-116 colon cancer cell line.