Antitumor impact of amygdalin on adaptive immune response in BALB/c mice with breast cancer

Abstract

Amygdalin is a potential therapeutically target in cancer. Here, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of amygdalin in the mice model of breast cancer. We assessed the percentage of CD4, CD8 T lymphocyte, intracellular IFN-γ, and Granzyme B in spleen cells of tumorized mice treated with 50 and 150 mg/kg of amygdalin (AG50 and AG150), and determined the expression of caspase 3 and p53, tumor size, and survival rate of Balb/c mice in tumor tissue after amygdalin administration. No significant difference was observed in the frequency of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in the three study groups. However, a significantly increased level of granzyme B in CD8+ T cells, as well as a significant decrease in the level of IL-10 in CD4+ T cells was detected in the AG50 group compared to the AG150. There was no significant difference in the expression of caspase 3 and P53 between the two groups. A significant change was seen in tumor size and survival rate of AG50 and AG150 groups compared to the controls. Our findings indicate that the antitumor effect of amygdalin in vivo was probably due to stimulating the effective immune response, and not the apoptotic genes induction.