ANTIMIGRATORY ACTIVITY OF ROYAL JELLY ON HCT-116 COLORECTAL CANCER CELLS

Royal jelly (RJ) has been employed throughout history as natural product with multiple benefits for human wellbeing. In present days, it is mainly consumed as a functional food, active factor of daily supplements and other formulations because of its various beneficial biological activities. Apitherapy presents a complementary medical approach which imply application of bee products in various diseases, including cancer. RJ has been considered as important agent in apitherapeutic practice, especially when there are experimental studies proving its antimetastatic effects. Pivotal process underlying metastasis is acquisition of migratory potential, which is why the present report aimed to investigate the effects of RJ (sampled from Serbia) on migration of colorectal cancer cells (HCT-116) and explain the possible cellular mechanism involved in cancer cell motility. Therefore, we employed Transwell assay to determine migration of HCT-116 cells and expression of proteins responsible for motility of these cells (E- and N-cadherin) was assessed by immunofluorescent method. Experiments were done 24 h after treatment with two selected noncytotoxic RJ concentrations (10 and 100 µg/mL). Transwell results showed suppression of HCT-116 migratory activity by RJ, which was probably the result of enhanced expression of antimigratory protein E-cadherin, as well as significantly suppressed expression of promigratory marker N-cadherin. These results should not be neglected and further additional research necessary for elucidation of this significant antimigratory potential of Serbian RJ will be certainly carried out.