Evaluation of the effect of Drimia Maritima and curcumin extracts in changes in the expression of Bax, Bcl-2, and P53 genes in lung cancer non-small cell

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Lung cancer is one of the most common malignancies in the world, with a very high mortality rate. Surgery and chemotherapy are among the first approaches to cancer treatment, which are associated with severe side effects, so more research has been done in the field of using medicinal plants with less toxicity. In the present study, we investigated the simultaneous effect of Drimia maritima plant extract (proscillaridin A), a cardiac glycoside, and turmeric plant extract (curcumin) in inducing apoptosis of non-small cell lung cancer cells. Methods and Materials Treatment of cancerous and non-cancerous cells with plant extracts was done by the MTT method, and the RNA of the samples was extracted using an extraction kit, and then cDNAs were synthesized using a special kit. Specific primers were designed for the sequence of P53, Bax, Bcl-2, and Gapdh genes, and the expression levels of the desired genes were checked and analyzed using the real-time PCR method. Cell cycle changes and apoptosis rates were also checked using the flow cytometry method. Results The results of investigating the simultaneous effect of proscillaridin and curcumin extracts on non-small cell lung cancer cells showed that we did not witness the synergistic power of the extracts together with each other, but we saw an increase in the survival of cancerous and non-cancerous cells, which, of course, in the case of non-cancerous cells were more impressive, and the two extracts seem to have neutralized each other's effect. The results indicate that the effect of each extract alone on cell lines (especially Calu-3 compared to A549) was greater. Conclusions Therefore, according to the research, it is possible that the use of extracts along with a suitable chemotherapy drug has a more significant effect on the life of normal or non-cancerous cells, which reduces the side effects of the drug and can increase the penetration rate of the chemotherapy drug, so in this field, more studies are needed.