Ann Pharmacol Pharm | Volume 2, Issue 1 | Review Article | Open Access
Karen Deering, William Nethery, Cale Averill and Emily Esposito*
Department of Pharmacology, Sullivan University College of Pharmacy, USA
*Correspondance to: Emily Esposito
Fulltext PDFPurp ose: Breast cancer affects 122.2 women per 100,000, while cervical cancer effects 7.4 per 100,000 women in the USA. Research reports that certain thyme essential oils inhibit growth and potentially cause apoptosis of many cancer cell types. A chemotype is a chemically distinct entity within a plant species; Thymus vulgaris has 7 possible chemotypes, each of which will change the properties of the essential oil if it is the dominant component. The objective of this study is to determine if thyme essential oils containing different chemotypes have apoptotic activity against MCF7 breast cancer cells and HeLa cervical cancer cells.
Methods: This study has been submitted to the Institutional Review Board for approval. In vitro cancer cells will be cultured and maintained using standard ATCC protocols and plated in 96-well plates. Serial dilutions of thyme essential oils (thymol, thujanol, and linalool) will be applied to cells and cultured for 24 hours. Cell viability will be measured using AlamarBlue which undergoes reduction by viable cells resulting in a red fluorescence proportional to the number of living cells. Cancer cell apoptosis will be evaluated using Apostat, a fluorescent caspase inhibitor. Experiments will be performed in triplicate on each cell line (MCF7 and HeLa). Data will be reported as the average percent of viability or average percent of apoptosis compared to the control plus/minus standard error of the mean.
Deering K, Nethery W, Averill C, Esposito E. Effects of Thyme Essential Oil Chemotypes on Breast and Cervical Cancer Cell Lineages. Ann Pharmacol Pharm. 2017; 2(1): 1008.