TheMAP30proteinfrombittergourd(Momordicacharantia)seedspromotesapoptosisinlivercancercellsinvitroandinvivoEvandroFeiFanga,1,2,ChrisZhiYiZhangb,c,1,JackHoWonga,JiaYunShend,ChuanHaoLie,TziBunNga,⇑aSchoolofBiomedicalSciences,FacultyofMedicine,TheChineseUniversityofHongKong,Shatin,HongKongbStateKeyLaboratoryofOncologyinSouthernChina,SunYat-SenUniversityCancerCenter,Guangzhou,ChinacDepartmentofPathology,SunYat-SenUniversityCancerCenter,Guangzhou,ChinadInstituteofDigestiveDiseaseandDepartmentofMedicineandTherapeutics,LiKaShingInstituteofHealthSciences,TheChineseUniversityofHongKong,HongKongeDepartmentofChemistry,FacultyofScience,TheChineseUniversityofHongKong,HongKongarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received17March2012Receivedinrevisedform28April2012Accepted2May2012Keywords:MAP30BittergourdMomordicacharantiaHepatocellularcarcinomaApoptosisabstractHumanhepatocellularcarcinomaHepG2cellsandHepG2-bearingmicewereusedasinvitroandinvivomodelstoassesstheefficacyandsafetyofMAP30,anaturalcomponentfromMomordicacharantia,asananticanceragentagainstlivercancer.Molecularstudiesdisclosedthecontributionofbothcaspase-8reg-ulatedextrinsicandcaspase-9regulatedintrinsiccaspasecascadesinMAP30-inducedcellapoptosis.TheantitumorpotentialwasalsoeffectiveinHepG2-bearingnudemice.SincebittergourdisastapleinmanyAsiancountries,MAP30wouldserveasanovelandrelativelysafeagentforprophylaxisandtreat-mentoflivercancer.�2012ElsevierIrelandLtd.Allrightsreserved.1.IntroductionBittergourd/BG(binominalnameMomordicacharantiabelong-ingtoFamilyCucurbitaceae)iswidelydistributedinAsia,Africa,andsomeplacesinSouthAmerica[1,2].ItsbitterfruitisacommonandpopularvegetableinAsiancountriesbecauseofitsrichtasteandnutritionalvalue.Furthermore,BGisalsoappliedinfolkloremedicinetotreatillnessessuchasmetabolicdisordersandviralinfections[1].Inrecentdecades,alargenumberofnutritional/medicinalcomponentsinBGhavebeenpurifiedandcharacterized,suchascucurbitane-typetriterpenoids,linolenicacids,potato-andsquash-typeproteaseinhibitors,ribonucle...
