Background: New anticancer drugs that eradicate specifically to cancer cells are needed to develop. In this study, terrein a compound isolated from Aspergillus terreus, was selected to test for the anticancer activity and oxidative-induced cancer cell death as target mechanism.

Objective: To determine the cytotoxicity of terrein comparing between breast cancer and non-cancerous cells and measuring the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glutathione (GSH).

Material and Method: MTT assay was used to test the cytotoxic level of terrein in MDA-MB-231 (a triple negative breast cancer cell line) comparing to Vero, a non-cancerous cells. For the amount of ROS, cell permeable fluorescent probe DCFDA was used and detected with flow cytometer, while the level of GSH was determined by using spectrophotometer.

Results: The result showed that terrein was cytotoxic to MDA-MB-231 at higher level than in Vero cells, the IC₅₀ was at 0.09 and 0.57 mM, respectively. The amount of ROS was increased in a dose-dependent manner, while GSH content was reduced with dose- and time-dependent manner.

Conclusion: The possible mechanism to induce breast cancer cell death by terrein is via the induction of oxidative stress and reduction of antioxidant GSH level. Hence, these data support the notion that terrein is an interesting compound to develop as anticancer agent.

Keywords: Terrein, Oxidative stress, ROS, Glutathione, Breast cancer