The effect of Artemisia turcomanica plant extract on the expression of bax and bcl genes in cervical cancer cell line (Hela)

The main cause of death in human societies is cancer, and medicinal plants can play an important role in cancer treatment due to their effective compounds. The purpose of this study is to investigate the anticancer effects of Artemisia turcomanica extract on the viability of cervical cancer cell line (Hela) and its effect on bcl and Bax gene expression. In this experimental study, first, the hydroalcoholic extract of the Artemisia turcomanica was prepared and Hela cancer cells were cultured in RPMI culture medium containing fetal bovine serum and penicillin/streptomycin and treated with different concentrations of the hydroalcoholic extract of the Artemisia turcomanica ( and μg /ml) for , , and hours. The anticancer effect of the extract was evaluated by MTT method and finally, at lethal concentration, the expression of Bax, Bcl genes was evaluated by Real-Time PCR method. Data were analyzed with SPSS software, one-way variance, Tukey test and p less than . This research showed that the anti-cancer effect of the extract on the cells increased significantly with increasing concentration and time compared to the control samples, also, Real-Time PCR results showed that the expression of Bax and Bcl genes changed significantly compared to the control sample at and hours. The results showed that the Artemisia turcomanica extract is an effective anti-cancer compound on cervical cancer cells, and probably with further investigation and identification of the effective compounds in the extract, a step can be taken in the direction of finding and designing new and effective drugs in the treatment of cancer.