The Inhibitory Effect of Ginger Extract on Ovarian Cancer Cell Line; Application of Systems Biology

Purpose: Ginger is a natural compound with anticancer properties. The effects of ginger and its mechanism on ovarian cancer and its cell line model, SKOV3, are unclear. In this study, we have evaluated the effect of ginger extract on SKOV3. Methods: SKOV3 cells were incubated with ginger extract for 24, 48 and 72 hours. Cell toxicity assay was performed. Different data mining algorithms were applied to highlight the most important features contributing to ginger inhibition on the SKOV3 cell proliferation. Moreover, RealTime PCR was performed to assay p53, p21 and bcl2 genes expression. For coexpression metaanalysis of p53, mutual ranking (MR) index and transformation to Zvalues (Z distribution) were applied on available transcriptome data in NCBI GEO data repository. Results: The ginger extract significantly inhibited cancer growth in ovarian cancer cell line. The most important attribute was 60 µg/ml concentration which received weights higher than 0.50, 0.75 and 0.95 by 90%, 80% and 50% of feature selection models, respectively. The expression level of p53 was increased sharply in response to ginger treatment. Systems biology analysis and metaanalysis of deposited expression value in NCBI based on rank of correlation and Ztransformation approach unraveled the key coexpressed genes and coexpressed network of P53, as the key transcription factor induced by ginger extract. High coexpression between P53 and the other apoptosisinducing proteins such as CASP2 and DEDD was noticeable, suggesting the molecular mechanism underpinning of ginger action. Conclusion: We found that the ginger extract has anticancer properties through p53 pathway to induce apoptosis.