Inhibition of Metastatic Lung Cancer in C57BL/6 Mice byMarine Mangrove Rhizophora apiculata

Metastasis is one of the hallmarks of malignant neoplasms and is the leading cause of death in many cancerpatients. A major challenge in cancer treatment is to find better ways to specifically target tumor metastasis.In this study, the anti-metastatic potential of the methanolic extract of Rhizophora apiculata (R.apiculata) wasevaluated using the B16F-10 melanoma induced lung metastasis model in C57BL/6 mice. Metastasis was inducedin C57BL/6 mice by injecting highly metastatic B16F-10 melanoma cells through the lateral tail vein. Simultaneoustreatment with R.apiculata extract (10 mg/kg b.wt (intraperitoneal) significantly (p<0.01) inhibited pulmonarytumor nodule formation (41.1 %) and also increased the life span (survival rate) 107.3 % of metastatic tumorbearing animals. The administration of R.apiculata extract significantly (p<0.01) reduced biochemical parameterssuch as lung collagen hydroxyproline, hexosamine, uronic acid content, serum nitric oxide (NO), γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) and sialic acid levels when compared to metastasis controls. These results correlated withlung histopathology analysis of R.apiculata extract treated mice showing reduction in lung metastasis and tumormasses. Taken together, our findings support that R.apiculata extract could be used as a potential anti-metastasisagent against lung cancer.