Medicinal herb extract and a single-compound drug confer similar complex pharmacogenomic activities in mcf-7 cells

Metabolite profiling and DNA microarray analysis of global gene expression profiles were employed to characterize the bioactivities of the herbal extract of Anoectochilus formosanus (AF), a popular folk medicine with anticancer activity, in MCF-7 cancer cells. The pharmacogenomic activities of this plant extract as a crude phytocompound mixture were compared to those conferred by the single-compound drug, plumbagin. A similar level of complexity in transcriptional regulation at the genomic level was observed for both AF extract- and plumbagin-treated MCF-7 cells, as revealed by the number of up- or downregulated genes as well as by the specific but distinct patterns found in the gene-clustering analysis. This finding offers evidence to support the search for fractionated medicinal herb extracts or phytocompound mixtures, in addition to single-compound drugs, as defined therapeutic agents.