ASSESSING THE GENOTOXIC AND CYTOTOXIC RESPONSES OF THE H-29 CANCER CELL LINES ON THE ETHANOLIC EXTRACTS OF THE OYSTER MUSHROOM, PLEUROTUS OSTREATUS VAR. FLORIDA

Globally, colorectal cancer is the third most common known today. Lack of cheap, rapid, safe and reliable cancer treatments resulted to the continued pursuit to find natural sources of bioactive compounds that can be cytotoxic or damaging to the DNA of cancer cells. One of the potential resource is the edible oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus var Florida) reported to have medicinal properties. Since many of the studies did not show specific varieties of the species used for the evaluation specifically on the anti-tumor and anticancer properties of the species, this study was therefore conducted. To determine whether there are cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of the ethanolic extracts of this variety of the white oyster mushroom against HT-29 colon cancer cell lines by damaging the DNA of cancer cells, the Comet assay method was used. This assay made use of differences in the measurements calculated by Open Comet Software of the tail length, tail DNA, tail DNA percent and tail moment in untreated and IC₅₀ ethanolic extract-treated cells. Results of the statistical analysis of the profiles of cells show significant differences between the untreated and treated HT-29 cells. This simply implies that the ethanolic extracts from P. ostreatus var. Florida had induced DNA damage to HT-29 cancer cell lines and that this variety of the species of P. ostreatus is a potential source of bioactive compounds important for the treatment of colorectal cancer.