Comparison of Anticancer Effects between Platinum Levetiracetam and Platinum  Azidothymidine through the Expression of Biomarker Genes on Cancer Cell Lines

Abdolreza  Sabokrouh; Nasim  Ghaffari; Zahra Karimi  Tafreshi; Freshteh  Atabi; Zohreh  Sharifi; Seyed Khalil Shokouhi  Mostavafi

doi:10.18502/ajmb.v17i1.17674

Abdolreza Sabokrouh Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Nasim Ghaffari Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Zahra Karimi Tafreshi Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Freshteh Atabi Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Zohreh Sharifi Blood Transfusion Research Center, High Institute for Research and Education in Transfusion Medicine, Tehran, Iran
Seyed Khalil Shokouhi Mostavafi Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ajmb.v17i1.17674

Keywords: Bcl-2, Levetiracetam, miRNAs, Telomerase, Zidovudine

Abstract

Background: The utilization of biomarkers is a way to assess the efficacy of recently created anticancer drugs. MiRNAs, telomerase, and Bcl-2 are extensively utilized as biomarkers for this purpose. This study aims to evaluate the comparison of the newly synthesized platinum compounds such as Platinum Azidothymidine (Pt-AZT) with Platinum Levetiracetam (Pt-Lev) on HepG2 cancer cell lines via the biomarkers.

Methods: In this study, cells were divided into four groups: Group A (HDF cells) were the normal negative control group, group B were HepG2 untreated cancer cells, and groups C and D were treated cancer cells with Pt-AZT and Pt-Lev, respectively. After evaluating the LC₅₀ for the drugs by MTT test, the relative gene expression of the biomarkers was determined by qPCR.

Results: The results showed a significant decrease for antiapoptotic genes including miRNA-21 (5.1±0.014), telomerase (0.56±0.48), Bcl-2 (0.41±0.276) in group D, whereas in group C was more than group D for miRNA-21 (6.0±0.141), telomerase (3.49± 0.231), Bcl-2 (4.93±0.276) also there was a significant increase in miRNA-122 (33.97± 0.04) in group D, whereas in group C was (28.36±0.007) and so lower than group D. Most of the investigated groups showed a significant difference (p<0.05). In addition, there were widespread apoptotic regions in Pt-Lev treatment compared to Pt-AZT.

Conclusion: The advantages of using Pt-Lev were more powerful anticancer effects on biomarkers through inhibition of antiapoptotic and stimulation proapoptotic factors and also lower side effects and lower drug resistance than Pt-AZT; therefore, it can be considered a more effective anti-cancer therapy.