Assessment of the efficiency antitumorigenic phenolic compounds in pancreatic cancer cell line

Although there are chemotheurapeutics, commonly used in treatment of pancreas cancer (PaCa) such as 5- fluorourasil, paclitaxel and cisplatin, the 5-year-survival rate is around 3-5% for patients diagnosed with PaCa. The reasons causing to a low survival rate are the agressiveness of PaCa, inability to diagnose the disease at an early stage and development of resistance against the chemotheurapeutics used in PaCa treatment. The natural phenolic compounds such as quercetin and resveratrol are recommended in some cancers as adjuvant therapies for their effectiveness in reducing side effects and/or increasing potential of chemoterapeutics in current studies. In this study, the effect of the phenolic compounds, quercetin and resveratrol were evaluated in PaCa in in vitro conditions using PANC-1 cell line. The IC50 values of Quercetin and Resveratrol in pancreatic cancer cells were determined by cytotoxicity test and IC50 values at 72 hours were found to be 7.75 μM and 48.75 μM, respectively (p ˂ 0,001). In order to evaluate the migration ability of PaCa cells when treated with effective doses of resveratrol (50 μM) and quercetin (10 μM), Wound-Healing Assay was used and the decrease in migration ability of PaCa cells was determined. In order to evaluate the colony forming ability of PaCa cells when treated with resveratrol and quercetin at IC50 doses, Colony formation Assay was used and with the IC50 doses of quercetin and resveratrol a decrease in colony forming ability of PaCa cells was determined, however at high doses of these compounds even the colonies were disappeared. Moreover, quercetin treatment at IC50 doses caused to a decrease in gene expression profile of Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 Kinase (eEF-2K) (p ˂ 0,05) which is known to be in association with invasion, metastasis and drug resistance. Resveratrol treatment at IC50 doses was found to increase eEF-2K expression (p ˂ 0,05). For this reason, the use of quercetin appears to be more appropriate in future studies. In planning further studies in cancer research, particularly quercetin, which is found to have a stronger effect in low IC50 doses in PaCa treatment in in vitro conditions can be recommended alone or in combination. In order to evaluate the existence of a potential synergistic effect and to determine its ability to decrease side effects of the chemotherapeutics, quercetin can be combined with other natural phenolic compounds and/or chemotherapeutics. Hence, it may be possible to develop appropriate treatment protocols to cure pancreatic cancer which has still having the highest morbidity and mortality rates. Key Words: Pancreatic Cancer; Phenolic Compounds; Quercetin; Resveratrol; Antitumorigenic Effect