Determination of cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of tumor cells apoptosis factor (TCApF) on human liver cancer cell line

Liver cancer is the type of cancer with the highest mortality rate worldwide. It is very difficult for a single treatment method to achieve satisfactory curative effects. Therefore, research and development of anti-tumor drugs is an urgent need. Cationic low molecular weight peptides with anti-tumor activity, classified as anti-cancer peptides (ACPs), emerged from this need. A new tumor cell apoptosis factor (TCApF) has been determined to cause apoptosis in acute myleoid leukemia, breast, glioblastoma, neuroblastoma, prostate and lung cancers in humans. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU), which is the most widely used chemotherapeutic agent in the treatment of solid malignancies, is widely used in many cancer diseases. In this thesis study, the cytotoxic effect of TCApF, which is known to have important anti-cancer effects and has been increasing in importance in recent studies, in combination with the anticancer drug 5-FU, on liver cancer cells (HepG2), the cytotoxic effect was investigated by MTT and the genotoxic effect by Comet method. According to the MTT analysis results, the cytotoxic effect of the combination of TCApF and 5-FU on the HepG2 cell line was observed in the experimental group at 1750 ng/mL TCApF+ 3,5 mg/mL 5-FU after the longest exposure time of 72 hours. In addition, using DNA tail density and DNA tail migration parameters, it has been shown that more genotoxic effects occur in HepG2 cells in which 1250-1750 ng/mL + 3,5 mg/mL 5-FU combination is applied compared to the positive control.