ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Breast and cervical cancers are the two most common cancers among women worldwide. Morphine is a potent analgesic for cancer pain, and radiation therapy is a conventional treatment for cancer. Unfortunately, the combined adjuvant cellular effects of morphine and ionizing radiation in cancer cells are largely unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we examined the effects of morphine and single radiation dose of 2 Gy on viability and survival fraction of human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB 231 and human cervical cancer cell line HeLa, by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide and colony formation assays. We were also interested in evaluating these effects in human umbilical vein endothelial cells as well. RESULTS: We found that morphine did not have a dose- and time-dependent manner in endothelial, breast, and cervical cancer cells in vitro. It seems that pretreatment of breast and cervical cancer cells with morphine at some doses before irradiation reduces the cytotoxic effect of radiation. We also observed that endothelial cells were less sensitive than breast and cervical cancer cells to radiation or morphine + radiation. Based on the results of endothelial cells, morphine or radiation might not have a selective effect on the viability and clonogenic survival of different cell lines. CONCLUSIONS: Our data may suggest that morphine and radiotherapy could not be administered together to breast and cervical cancer patients if additional and in vivo studies confirm our results.
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Cancer Pain/drug therapy , Morphine/pharmacology , Radiation Tolerance/drug effects , Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Apoptosis/drug effects , Apoptosis/radiation effects , Breast Neoplasms/complications , Cancer Pain/etiology , Cell Line, Tumor , Cell Survival/drug effects , Cell Survival/radiation effects , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation , Female , Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells , Humans , Morphine/therapeutic use , Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/complicationsABSTRACT
Melissa officinalis L. is a medicinal plant with a large variety of pharmacological effects and traditional applications. This study aimed to evaluate the protective and antioxidant activities of the extract of M. officinalis aerial parts on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) under oxidative stress induced by H2O2. Cells were incubated with H2O2 (0.5 mM, 2 h) after pretreatment with M. officinalis extract (25-500 µg/mL). Cell viability was evaluated by 3-(4, 5- Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The concentration of hydroperoxides and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were measured in intra- and extra-cellular fluids. Pretreatment of HUVECs with M. officinalis extract at the concentrations of 100-500 µg/mL improved the cell viability after exposure to H2O2 significantly. It also decreased hydroperoxides concentration and increased FRAP value in both intra- and extra-cellular fluids. The results revealed antioxidant and cytoprotective effects of M. officinalis against H2O2-induced oxidative stress in HUVECs. Due to the valuable antioxidant activity, this plant extract may have potential benefits for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases associated with oxidative stress.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Cervical cancer is a malignancy that is the second most common cause of death from cancer in women throughout the world. Paederus beetle (Paederus fuscipes) extract (PBE), contains bioactive compounds such as pederine which has cytotoxic properties and blocks DNA and protein synthesis at very low concentrations. In this investigation we tried to determine the effects co-treatment with PBE and gamma irradiation on HeLa cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: THE VIABILITY OF THE CELLS WAS MEASURED BY TWO METHODS: MTT and Colony assay. RESULTS: We found that supplementing gamma irradiation therapy with PBE does not increase cell death and it might even interfere with its cytotoxicty at the concentrations below 0.1 ng/ml and the viability for irradiation vs irradiation + PBE was 37%: 60%. CONCLUSION: This finding might be due to radioprotective effects of the very low doses of PBE against gamma radiation.
