Enhanced anti-proliferative activity of Jacalin, a plant lectin in combination with taxol in MDA-MB-468 triple-negative breast cancer cells.

Plant lectins derived from a variety of plant sources can inhibit the proliferation of certain types of human cancer cells and have been studied extensively. In the present study, the effects of Jacalin, a Thomsen–Friedenreich disaccharide-binding lectin isolated from jackfruit seeds, on the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line MDA-MB-468 was investigated in combination with Taxol. It was observed that Jacalin inhibited the proliferation of these cancer cells. The antiproliferative effect of Jacalin on MDA-MB-468 was found to be reversible. However, when Jacalin was removed from the cell culture after the treatment for the given time, the cancer cells recovered back and started proliferating again. Importantly, Jacalin has minimum effect on PBMCs proliferation taken as primary cell line control. Additionally, MDA-MB-468 cells were treated with a combination of Taxol (25 µM) and Jacalin (40 µg/mL). This shows that Jacalin and Taxol work better when used together, leading to a stronger inhibition in cancer cell growth. These results suggest that Jacalin shows in-vitro potential and requires further mechanistic and in-vivo evaluation before therapeutic relevance can be established.