Background: Stomach cancer is one of the main causes of death from cancer. One of the common drugs used in chemotherapy is the anthracycline doxorubicin (DOX), to which cancer cells develop resistance after some time. Non-coding RNAs can be among the factors that cause cell resistance. The use of combination therapy may be a suitable way to overcome resistance. Bioactive compounds can be an effective option in combination therapy. Apigenin (APG) is a flavonoid whose anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects have been proven and can be used in combination therapy.
Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the drug doxorubicin (DOX) and the flavonoid apigenin (APG) separately and simultaneously on the rate of growth, mortality, migration, cell cycle, reactive oxygen species and expression of the non-coding MALAT1 gene in gastric AGS cancer cells.
Methodology: Gastric cancer cells were cultured from AGS cell line. Then the cells were treated with different concentrations of DOX drug and APG flavonoid. After that, the amount of IC50 (50% growth inhibition concentration), IC30 (30% growth inhibition concentration) and IC20 (20% growth inhibition concentration) of each drug was determined. Finally, the IC30 of DOX and APG drugs were used separately and in combination for biological tests. The effect of IC30 of DOX and APG separately and in combination was investigated in MTT, Scratch, ROS, Cell Cycle, Apoptosis, RealTime-PCR and Western blot tests.
Findings: The results of this research showed that the simultaneous combination of DOX and APG significantly decreased the survival of cancer cells, reduced cell migration, increased production of free oxygen species, increased effect on the G1 phase of the cell cycle, induced more apoptosis, and significantly decreased RNA expression. Non-coding MALAT1 and decreased expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and increased expression of apoptotic protein Bax compared to the use of DOX and APG separa