Influence of Morinda citrifolia (Noni) on Expression of DNA Repair Genes in Cervical Cancer Cells

Background: Previous studies have suggested that Morinda citrifolia (Noni) has potential to reduce cancerrisk.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Noni, cisplatin, and their combinationon DNA repair genes in the SiHa cervical cancer cell line. Materials and
Methods: SiHa cells were cultured andtreated with 10% Noni, 10 μg/dl cisplatin or their combination for 24 hours. Post culturing, the cells were pelleted,RNA extracted, and processed for investigating DNA repair genes by real time PCR.
Results: The expressionof nucleotide excision repair genes ERCC1, ERCC2, and ERCC4 and base excision repair gene XRCC1 wasincreased 4 fold, 8.9 fold, 4 fold, and 5.5 fold, respectively, on treatment with Noni as compared to untreatedcontrols (p<0.05). In contrast, expression was found to be decreased 22 fold, 13 fold, 16 fold, and 23 fold ontreatment with cisplatin (p<0.05). However, the combination of Noni and cisplatin led to an increase of 2 fold,1.6 fold, 3 fold, 1.2 fold, respectively (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Noni enhanced the expression of DNA repair genesby itself and in combination with cisplatin. However, high expression of DNA repair genes at mRNA level onlysignifies efficient DNA transcription of the above mentioned genes; further investigations are needed to evaluatethe DNA repair protein expression.