Coffea arabica bean extracts and vitamin C: A novel combination unleashes MCF-7 cell death.

Vitamin C (VC) is believed to enhance immunity and is regularly integrated as a supplementary agent during several treatments.The green (GC) and roasted (RC) Coffee (Coffea arabica) aqueous extracts (0, 125, 250 and 500 μg/ml) combined with VC (50 μg/ml) were examined on the cancerous MCF-7 cell line and normal human lymphocytes.Neutral red uptake assay, comet assay, immunocytochemical reactivity for protein expression and mRNA expression of apoptosis-related genes were done.A significant (P < 0.05) concentration-dependent increase of apoptotic features, such as morphological changes, abundant nuclear condensation, altered expression of p53 and caspase-3 mRNA, down-regulation of Bcl-2 protein as well as the acidic autophagosomal vacuolization in treated cells. The oxidative stress and DNA single strand breaks were noticed too.These results suggest that coffee in combination with VC undergo apoptotic anticancer pathway. This supports the integration of coffee and vitamin C as a valuable candidate for anticancer research and treatments.