Antileukemic Effect of Tualang Honey on Acute and Chronic Leukemia Cell Lines
Leukemia is malignant neoplasm of white blood cells originating from the bone marrow. It is characterized by the
uncontrolled growth of blood cells.
Leukemia is classified into acute and chronic leukemia. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) develop from the progenitor of myeloid or granulocytic cells.
The current mode of leukemia treatment is using chemotherapy. However, chemotherapy has its own side effects. The firstline chemotherapy used to treat CML is imatinib mesylate, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. However it is costly and about 50% developed disease resistance later after treatment.
Honey has been used since ancient times for its nutritional and therapeutic value. Many types of honey are available worldwide and its constituents differ from one place to another. Tualang Honey (TH) is a local Malaysian honey, collected from wild honey bees hives on Tualang trees found in the rain forest. It has been used as a complement to treat various diseases where its therapeutic value may be related to its antioxidant properties. In addition, TH also has been shown to have antibacterial, anticarcinogenic, and antiinflammatory activities.
As an antioxidant, it has several preventative effects against different diseases, such as cancer, coronary diseases, inflammatory disorders, neurological degeneration, and aging. Increase in phenolic compound in TH may
contribute to its antioxidant property.
Conclusion
This study has proved that TH did produce a significant apoptosis effect on both acute and chronic leukemia cell
lines. Thus we conclude that TH could potentially serve as an antileukemic agent with the apoptosis properties.