Investigation of the effects of β-asarone on anti-cancer and etoposid resistance in breast cancer cell line

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of β-asarone on the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 alone and in combination with a chemotherapy agent etoposide. Material and Methods: In this study, MCF-7 cells were cultured and the effect of β-asarone either alone or in combiantion with etoposide, on cell viability, cell cycle and cell death was determined by MTT, cell cycle analysis and Annexin/7AAD tests, respectively. Analysis of the expression of apoptosis-associated proteins such as p53, p21, NFKB-p65, Bax was performed by Western blot analysis. Results: Here, it was determined by MTT test that increasing concentrations of β-asarone alone decreases metabolic activity over time and the concentrations of 150 μM and above were effective in reducing cell viability. The effect of combined concentrations of β-asarone and Etoposide in reducing cell viability is higher than that of Etoposide. When β-asarone was used together with Etoposide, an increase in the rate of apoptosis was detected with the increasing concentrations. It was determined by Western blot analysis that β-asarone and Etoposide caused an increase in Bax and NFκB protein levels in single and combined concentrations. Conclusion: In this study, it was found that β-asarone concentrations of 200 μM and above were effective in reducing MCF-7 cell viability, and low β-asarone concentrations at combined concentrations did not affect etoposide resistance. Keywords: MCF-7, etoposide, breast cancer, β-asarone, p53, p21, NFKB-p65, Bax.