TY - JOUR ID - 4653 TI - The correlation between telomerase activity and Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in valproic acid-treated MCF-7 breast cancer cell line JO - Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences JA - IJBMS LA - en SN - 2008-3866 AU - Vafaiyan, Zahra AU - Gharaei, Roghaye AU - Asadi, Jahanbakhsh AD - Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Disorder Metabolic Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Y1 - 2015 PY - 2015 VL - 18 IS - 7 SP - 700 EP - 704 KW - Bax KW - Bcl-2 KW - MCF-7 KW - Telomerase KW - Valproic acid DO - 10.22038/ijbms.2015.4653 N2 - Objective(s):Valproic acid (VPA), a drug used in the treatment of neurological disorders, has been shown to have cytotoxic effects on cancer cells through different mechanisms. Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase, is responsible for elongation of the telomere and is activated in cancers. A relation between telomerase activity and resistance to apoptosis has been established. This study focused on probable effects of VPA on MCF-7 cancer cells. In particular, we investigated VPA effects on viability, apoptosis and telomerase activity. Materials and Methods: Cytotoxicity effects of VPA on MCF-7 cells were determined by neutral red uptake assay. Cells were treated with different concentrations of VPA (0-32 mM) and telomerase activity and Bax and Bcl-2 protein levels were determined using TRAP assay (PCR-ELISA) method and ELISA method, respectively. Results: The cytotoxic effects of different concentration of VPA on MCF-7 cells were observed as a reduction in cell viability and telomerase activity and altered expression of Bcl-2 family protein levels. The results also showed that there is a significant correlation between reduction of telomerase activity and increase in Bax/Bcl-2 ratio (P=0.001). Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that cell viability of MCF-7 cells was decreased after treatment with VPA, probably through a reduction of telomerase activity and an increase in Bax/bcl-2 ratio. Therefore, it could be concluded that VPA is a potent anti-cancer agent for breast cancer cells through inhibition of telomerase activity and induction of apoptosis. UR - https://ijbms.mums.ac.ir/article_4653.html L1 - https://ijbms.mums.ac.ir/article_4653_a2581ff47effefa858e208d2667a07a9.pdf ER -