Investigation of possible anticarcinogenic effects of Carvacrol on melanoma cell lines

TAYSI ML, Investigation of Possible Anticarcinogenic Effects of Carvacrol on Melanoma Cell Lines, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Institute of Health Sciences, Medical Biology, Master's Thesis, Van, 2024. Skin cancer attracts attention with the increasing number of cases in the world. Investigating the role of antioxidant-containing natural compounds in cancer treatment has gained importance in recent years. In some previous studies carvacrol (CRV) has been reported to has antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer effects. In our study, the anticancerogenic effects of KRV on A2058 human and B16F10 mouse melanoma cells were investigated for the first time in the literature. For this purpose, different doses (1 µM, 10 µM, 20 µM, 40 µM and 100 µM) of KRV were applied to the aforementioned melanoma cell lines in vitro and the IC50 value was calculated with the MTT cytotoxicity assay. According to the calculated IC50 result, it was determined that CRV had a cytotoxic effect on melanoma cancer cells. A wound healing experiment was performed to analyze the effect of KRV on the migration of melanoma cells, and a colony formation experiment was performed to determine the colony-forming potential of the cells. Cell adhesion experiment was performed to test the adhesion ability of the mentioned cells, and flow cytometry analysis was performed to determine the expression levels of CD44 and CD133 cancer stem cell surface markers. In addition, RT-PCR analysis method was used to determine the expression levels of BAX, BCL-2, TGF-β, CD4 and CD133 genes. It has been noted that the expression levels of CD44 and CD133 cancer stem cell surface markers decrease at both mRNA and protein levels with the application of CRV. It was observed that the expression of the apoptotic gene BAX (at the mRNA level) increased and the anti-apoptotic gene BCL-2 decreased, indicating the induction of apoptosis. In conclusion, this study showed that KRV has cytotoxic and anticarcinogenic effects on both A2058 human and B16F10 mouse melanoma cancer cell lines. Keywords: Skin Cancer, Cytotoxicity, Anticarcinogenic, Carvacrol.