The investigation of the use of goji berry fruit with the food supplement carnitine

Objective: A co-factor L-carnitine (LC) obtained from the diet or synthesized endogenously from lysine and methionine in the kidney, liver and brain transports long-chained fatty acids (FAs) into the mitochondrial matrix for ATP generation via the citric acid cycle. The treatment modalities dependent on the blokage of FAs, i.e. the decrease in LC levels, lead to cancer regression. The application of LC in single or in combination to several cancer types including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) shows inhibitory effect via the induction of apoptosis. However, there are also some controversial studies on LC causing cancer and protecting cells from the deterioration of therapies. A Chinese medical dietary supplement as Goji berry (GB) with an antioxidant and apoptotic effect is used to prevent or treat various cancer types including leukemia. In our study, we targeted to investigate the effects of GB and LC in single and in combination with each other on chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with their signal transduction pathway. Materials and methods: Antioxidant capacity known GB fruits' extracts were applied to K562 leukemia cells in single and in combination with LC for 72 h. The effects of these applications were determined by cell number, cell viability and apoptotic cell rate (flow cytometry), the levels of apoptotic (Caspases-3,8,9, bax) and anti-apoptotic (bcl-2) proteins (ELISA). Anova test was used and p<0.05 was accepted statistically significant. Results: Highest decrease at cell number and viability were found at the combination group (PGB+LC<0.05). The combination group led to the highest increase in apoptotic cell rate in concomitant with the highest increase in the levels of caspases-3,8 (PGB+LC<0.05). GB decreased cell number with cell viability potently after the combination group through the increase of caspase-3 levels via the highest increase in caspase-9 with bax levels and the highest decrease in bcl-2 levels (PGB<0.05). LC showed the lowest inhibitory effect on cell number with the highest cell viability (PLC<0.05). LC led to the lowest increase in apoptotic cell rate through the lowest increase in the levels of caspases-3,8 (PLC<0.05). Conclusion: In the current study, it's detected that GB and LC have a proliferation inhibitory effect on CML cells via intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis, respectively. In addition to this, it's shown firstly that GB combined with LC shows a synergistic effect through the increase in extrinsic apoptosis. Keywords: Goji berry, L-Carnitine, Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, Fatty acids, Apoptosis.