The effect of thymoquinone on the cell cycle and tumor angiogenesis process in human breast cancer cell line, mda-mb-231

Niloufar Mirzania,1 Mohammad hosein modaressi,2 Maryam shahali,3,*

1. Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad university, Tehran, Iran
2. Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad university, Tehran, Iran
3. Department of Quality Control, Research and Production Complex, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction

In recent years, tendency to use phytochemical compounds has been grown dramatically, and more than 25% of drugs used during the last 20 years are directly derived from plants. thymoquinone (tq), one of the herbal medicines, which is main bioactive constituent of black seed oil has been shown to exert anti-neoplastic and anti-inflammatory effects. in this study we investigated the effects of tq on the expression of the proliferative and angiogenic biomarkers in human breast cancer cell line, mda-mb-231.

Methods

In this regard, mda-mb-231 cell line was cultured and treated with tq, and mtt assay was carried out for evaluating the half-maximal lethal dose (ld50) values after 12, 24 and 48 h of treatment. quantitative rt-pcr was performed to estimate the mrna expression of cyclin d1/stat3 and vegf in mda-mb-231 cell line at different times.

Results

The ld50 value for the tq in mda-mb-231 cells was approximately 10 μm that determined using mtt assay. the real-time pcr results showed that vegf gene expression in 10 μm of tq showed a dramatically decrease after 24 and 48 h (p<0.05). additionally, the level of mrna expression of cyclind1 was significantly downregulated in the treated cells compared with that in the control group at 48 hours (p˂0.05). also, tq significantly downregulates mrna expression of stat3 in the mda-md-231-treated cells in comparison to control group after 48 h (p˂0.05).

Conclusion

Therefore, our results comfirmed anti-proliferative and anti-angiogenic effects of tq. however, further complementary data such as the results of tumorigenic in vitro and in vivo assays of mda-mb-231-treated cells and its comparison with control group should be collected to fully confirm the inhibitory effect(s) of tq in tumorigenic properties of breast cancer cell line, mda-mb-231.

Keywords

thymoquinone, mda-mb-231, clclin d1, vegf.