Introduction: One of the detrimental features of retinoblastoma is highly invasiveness of this type of cancer; the ability to metastasize into distal organs even in the early stages. This phenomenon highlights the importance of experiments targeting this characteristic to diminish the disquieting outcomes. In this study our main aim was to assess the impact of naringenin and/or resveratrol (two main herbal extract with known anti-cancer properties) treatment on the important genes expression in the metastasis and cancer progression pathways in Y79 retinoblastoma cell line.
Methods: To attain the cytotoxicity dose of both reagents, MTT assay performed for 24 and 48 hours. The Y79 cells were then treated with lower dose compared with the IC50. To further investigate the synergistic effect of the compounds, concurrent treatment was also done. Finally the expression of E-cadherin, N-Cadherin, and Galectin-3 investigated in different samples by the aid of real-time PCR.
Results: According the MTT assay the 24 hours IC50 for resveratrol was about 100 µg/ml and 48 hours IC50 was about 50 µg/ml. Naringenin 48 hours IC50 calculated to be 100 µg/ml. Treatment of Y79 cells with naringenin, resveratrol, or the concurrent treatment down-regulated the N-Cadherin mRNA expression level. Treatment with resveratrol or the concurrent increased the expression level of the E-Cadherin and diminished Galectin-3 expression.
Conclusion: Resveratrol seems to be more toxic for Y79 cells compared with the naringenin. Two compounds didn’t show significant synergistic effect. Both compounds exerts anti-metastatic effect on these cells by inducing N-Cadherin down-regulation. Resveratrol enhanced the expression of the E-Cadherin, along with the decreasing the Galectin-3 exerts even more anti-tumor activity, and can be proposed as a beneficial reagents in cancer immunotherapy.