Abstract
Introduction: Paclitaxel has been approved by the FDA for clinical use in cancer therapy; however, it has severe dose-related toxicity. Therefore, in the current research, carvacrol, a natural compound with anti-cancer properties, was examined as an adjuvant treatment for paclitaxel.
Methods: The MTT assay was used to investigate the cytotoxicity of carvacrol and paclitaxel against the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Chou and Talalay method were used for the drug-drug interactions analysis. The amount of apoptosis induction in the treated cells was determined using DAPI fluorescence staining. Finally, expression of the Bax, BCL-2, and TP53 genes at mRNA and protein levels was measured by real-time PCR and Western blot, respectively.
Findings: It was determined that the toxicity of carvacrol in both cell lines was dose- and time-dependent. Analysis of the images obtained from DAPI staining showed that the combination of carvacrol and paclitaxel resulted in the death of 77.59% and 87.24% of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells, respectively. Results from the gene expression analysis showed that the Bax and TP53 genes were overexpressed in the treated cells, while BCL-2 showed a downregulation. These results have been replicated at the protein level with a western blot test.
Conclusion: The results of this study shown that the simultaneous use of carvacrol and paclitaxel can be more effective in the treatment of breast cancer cells. This research confirms for the first time that the combined use of paclitaxel and carvacrol in the treatment of breast cancer cells can be a promising solution to reduce the limitations of chemotherapy.