There are treatment options of HCC, such as surgical resection (Takayama, Makuuchi et al. 1998). Also, liver transplantation can be done with this case only implies to patients having tumors in early stages (Poon and Fan 2004). Some more treatment options for HCC are transcatheter arterial embolization (Ikeda, Kumada et al. 1991), percutaneous ethanol injection(EBARA, OHTO et al. 1990), and percutaneous radiofrequency ablation(Curley and Izzo 2002) but they are only used for palliation. HCC is quite resistant to conventional therapies such as chemo and radiotherapies (Bruix, Sherman et al. 2005; Lachenmayer, Alsinet et al. 2010; Rampone, Schiavone et al. 2010). As far as chemotherapy is concerned, up until this point, the only primary drug used for treating HCC is sorafenib, but the survival rate is limited(Horgan, Dawson et al. 2012).
One of the major explanations behind which the patients with HCC have poor recovery is the multicentric nature of HCC, particularly in the liver of those patients having liver cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis due to infection caused by HCV and HBV (Yamamoto, Kajino et al. 1999). Thus regardless of the treatment of cancer and tumor being removed there may be several chances that another clone of the cancerous cell may emerge and results into secondary HCC(Moriwaki 2002) Also intrahepatic metastasis might result into recurrence in HCC patients because of the presence of a cell clone which is gotten from the underlying transformed cell clone. (Chen, Yeh et al. 2000)
Nature has always been a golden sign to show the various wonders of co-existence. Natural products obtained from plants, minerals, and animals are essential elements for treating human diseases(Firenzuoli and Gori 2007). The demand and acceptance of the use of medicinal plants have been increasing progressively. Without any doubt, plants are a major component of the ecosystem. Humans and other living organisms cannot have a life the way it should be without plant existence. However medicinal plants are considered as general health marker of a biological system(Singh 2002) Through early ages till today plants have been used in different cancer treatments(Hartwell 1982) In reality, the use of therapeutic plants for the treatment of illnesses goes back to the historical backdrop of human life, that is, since people have looked for a cure in their surroundings to treat a particular disease, plants were their only choice of treating disease(Halberstein 2005)
Medicinal plants are usually utilized for the prevention and treatment of various diseases, thus considered to have a major role in benefiting health. In history, herbs were the major sources for the treatment of various diseases as well as the elimination of pain; in any case, this does not imply that herbal medicines are an old phenomenon as some may think. All of the active components have not been identified even with the great advancements in the field of science and pharmaceutical industries, and there is still a lot to be studied Thus even today relying on herbal medicines is still the basis of various medicines used today for treating diseases(Saad, Azaizeh et al. 2005)
Medicinal plants also show various synergistic properties; therefore, they are utilized in different treatments. Different constituents of plants work together and provide either beneficial or adverse effects. This synergism may be useful for them both or harmful for each of them. A compound derived from plants can drastically improve hard-to-treat diseases, for example, malignant growths, cancer. These constituents can also provide prevention against some specific diseases. The harmful and unfriendly impacts of traditional and allopathic prescriptions have been proved significant factors in the reduction of chemical drugs, unexpected rise in demand and use of herbal medicines among the local population as well as the increase of their manufactures (Phillipson 2001) There is evidence of cultivation of plants as medicines for almost 60.000 years ago (Solecki 1975)
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), in developing countries around 4000 million individuals have confidence in using medicinal plants and use them as regularly for treatment and remedies (Rai, Prasad et al. 2000) Despite the availability of modern medication in these countries, herbal medicines still have an important place and popularity with historical and cultural perspective(Aburjai, Hudaib et al. 2007) Moreover in developing nations, 80% individuals absolutely rely on herbal medicines for primary healthcare and more than 25% of recommended medicines for various diseases have been made from wild species of plants (Hamilton 2004).
To treat cancers, various non-surgical methods used by targeting apoptosis is specifically important as apoptosis is the cell’s natural process, and its invasion is nonspecific to type of cancer cell (Bao, Zhang et al. 2017; Liu and Zhu 2017). Apoptosis act via two pathways knows as the intrinsic pathway and the extrinsic pathway. Stimulation of intrinsic pathway is by molecules released from mitochondria whereas extrinsic pathways act via death receptors (Lopez and Tait 2015) Those plant compounds that can start apoptosis and have their toxicity to only cancer cells can be proved as a proficient target for the cancer treatment (Pfeffer and Singh 2018). Cancer genes can be targeted in order to control them. In them included are genes related to cancer and apoptosis such as AFP, p53, and BAX
The main aim of this study is to find those plants that can act as potent therapeutic plants against Liver cancer by using Hep G2 cell line as liver cancer is a major sixth most common cancer and is facing various issues to overcome it like high cost, side effects, and drug-resistant cancer cells
(Ten plants i.e. Ocimum basilicum (Sweet basil), Quisqualis indica (Rangoon creeper), Helianthus annuus (Sunflower), Tabernaemontana divaricata (Crepe jasmine) Alstonia scholaris (Devil’s tree), Euphorbia cotinifolia (Smoketree spurge), Jatropha integerrima (Peregrina), Bougainvillea spectabilis (Great bougainvillea), Cinnamomum tamala (Indian bay leaf) and Sapindus mukorossi (Reetha) were selected based on their medicinal importance and the presence of phytochemicals of diverse pharmaceutical properties. Moreover, these plants were not previously screened for anti-cancer activity against HepG2 cell line.)
To be replaced after confirmation of names
Plants were collected from various regions of Lahore, including different nurseries, gardens, and the Botanical garden of Punjab University. Plants were dried and then grounded. Afterward, their extracts were prepared in 80% methanol and then concentrated and left dry. To check the antioxidant potential of those plants, the DPPH assay was used. To evaluate the cytotoxic potential of plants, MTT assay was performed. Three genes ie, AFP, p53, and BAX. Were selected in order to evaluate the anti-cancer activity potential of selected plants and studies were carried out via real-time PCR.