Evaluation of the Cytotoxic and Apoptogenic Effects of Glabridin and ItsEffect on Cytotoxicity and Apoptosis Induced by Doxorubicin TowardCancerous Cells

In the present study, we tried for the first time to examine the anti-proliferative andanti-apoptogenic effect of Glabridin (Glab) toward three groups of cancer cells (SKNMC,H1299, and A2780). Furthermore, the possibility of co-administration of Glab with doxorubicin(DOX) to these cells was also examined to find out whether Glab can potentiate the cytotoxiceffect of this chemotherapy agent. Different cellular assays (MTT, caspase-3 activity, MMP, RT-PCR analysis) were carriedout on the cancer cells treated with Glab. Cellular toxicity assay revealed that Glab can potentially reduce the viability of thesecells with IC50 concentrations up to 10, 12, and 38 μM toward A2780, SKNMC, and H1299 celllines, respectively. The results of MMP and caspase-3 activity assays, in association with theresults corresponding to the BAX and Bcl-2 gene expressions, altogether revealed that Glab canexert apoptogenic effect on these cells. The intrinsic mitochondrial pathway was found to bethe main mechanism, in which Glab induced apoptosis toward H1299 cells and SKNMC cells,while the apoptosis mechanism for A2780 cells could be probably through extrinsic pathway.Glab also potentiated the cytotoxic effect of DOX and its accumulation in H1299 cell line. The results of this study revealed the promising cytotoxic role of Glab on differentcarcinoma cells. These data also suggested that co-chemotherapy method using Glab could beeffective for treatment of cancer, but further in-vivo and clinical studies are still needed to assurethese results.