Molecular Evidence of Anticancer Activity of Camel Milk Combined with Camel Urine

Abstract

Camel Milk (CM) and Camel Urine (CU) is a traditional practice in the Middle East and other countries as an alternative treatment against cancer. We hypothesized that a combination of CM and CU (CM+CU), used at bioavailable concentrations, will result in cancer cell apoptosis without toxic effect on normal epithelial cell lines. Pursuant to this goal, we investigated CM+CU effect on breast (BC) and Prostate Cancer (PC) cell lines and examined its underlying mechanisms of action in-vitro. The highly metastatic BC (MDA-MB-231) and PC (PC3) cells as well as the non-tumorigenic epithelial cell line (MCF-10A) were treated with Filtered Camel Milk (FCM) and Virgin Camel Urine (VCU), both individually and in combination at bioavailable concentration levels. Although FCM and VCU were effective individually, the FCM+VCU combination significantly suppressed BC and PC cell proliferation (>80%), and surprisingly induced 100% cell death. In contrast, no deleterious effects were observed in MCF-10A control cells. More interestingly, the FCM+VCU combination upregulated Bax and downregulated expression of Bcl-2 and hypo-phosphorylated Rb expression in both BC and PC cell lines. In conclusion, this is the first study providing evidence of in-vitro chemo-preventive synergistic effect of FCM+VCU combination against BC and PC cells, supporting its anticancer property.