Effects of Imatinib and Artemisia vulgaris extracts in combination on leukemia cell proliferation

Abstract

Resistance to imatinib develops gradually and presents major complications in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) disease, necessitating additional study for therapy improvement. Artemisia vulgaris is a member of the genus Artemisia which is traditionally used in herbal medicine. Historically, this plant was used to cure a variety of many human diseases including cancer. The goal of this study was to investigate the combined effect of imatinib and A. vulgaris extract on CML cell lines. For this objective, TCCY cells were treated for 72 hours with Imatinib, A. vulgaris extract, and the combinations at various concentrations. The proliferation of cells was determined by using the Trypan Blue dye exclusion assay. The combined efficacy of extract and Imatinib was determined using a nonlinear isobologram model at IC80 levels. To find discrepancies between observed and predicted data, Friedman tests and Nemenyi post-hoc analysis were used. To confirm the combined impact, the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test was utilized. The results suggested that the effect of Imatinib and A. vulgaris in combination was additive to synergistic. As a result, it was found that taking A. vulgaris extract can make Imatinib more effective against the CML cell line TCCY.