Artesunate induced apoptosis in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells through caspase-dependent pathway

7^th International Conference and Expo on Molecular & Cancer Biomarkers

September 15-16, 2016 Berlin, Germany

Reyhaneh Sariri, Leila Jamalzadeh and Hossein Ghafoori

University of Guilan, Iran

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Mol Biomark Diagn

Abstract :

Artesunate, the most potent semi-synthetic derivative of artemisinin, is an effective antimalarial drug. It is recently used in medical preparations that induce tumor cell apoptosis. Despite several reports of potent anticancer activities of artesunate against different tumors, the mechanism of action is still unclear. The aims of this study were to determine if artesunate could induce apoptosis in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells, and to understand its molecular mechanism. The growth inhibitory effect of arteunate on breast cancer MCF-7 cells was measured by MTT assay. The cells were first treated with various concentrations of artesunate followed by flow cytometry assay. Annexin V-FITC/PI staining was then applied to detect apoptosis. The activity of key apoptotic proteins: Caspase-3,-8 and -9 were also determined using caspase colorimetric assay kits. The MTT results indicated that artesunate could significantly inhibit the growth of MCF-7 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In addition, based on the results from flow cytometry, it was found that anti-proliferative activity of artesunate in MCF-7 cells occurs through apoptosis. On the other hand, caspase colorimetric assays suggested increased cellular levels of both initiators (caspase-8 and -9) and effector caspases (caspase-3) in cells were exposed to artesunate.

Biography :

Email: sariri@guilan.ac.ir