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Abdallah ME, El-Readi MZ, Althubiti MA, Almaimani RA, Ismail AM, Idris S, Refaat B, Almalki WH, Babakr AT, Mukhtar MH, Abdalla AN, Idris OF. Tamoxifen and the PI3K Inhibitor: LY294002 Synergistically Induce Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in Breast Cancer MCF-7 Cells. Molecules 2020; 25:E3355. [PMID: 32722075 PMCID: PMC7436112 DOI: 10.3390/molecules25153355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2020] [Revised: 07/18/2020] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Breast cancer is considered as one of the most aggressive types of cancer. Acquired therapeutic resistance is the major cause of chemotherapy failure in breast cancer patients. To overcome this resistance and to improve the efficacy of treatment, drug combination is employed as a promising approach for this purpose. The synergistic cytotoxic, apoptosis inducing, and cell cycle effects of the combination of LY294002 (LY), a phosphatidylinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor, with the traditional cytotoxic anti-estrogen drug tamoxifen (TAM) in breast cancer cells (MCF-7) were investigated. LY and TAM exhibited potent cytotoxic effect on MCF-7 cells with IC50 values 0.87 µM and 1.02 µM. The combination of non-toxic concentration of LY and TAM showed highly significant synergistic interaction as observed from isobologram (IC50: 0.17 µM, combination index: 0.18, colony formation: 9.01%) compared to untreated control. The percentage of early/late apoptosis significantly increased after treatment of MCF-7 cells with LY and TAM combination: 40.3%/28.3% (p < 0.001), compared to LY single treatment (19.8%/11.4%) and TAM single treatment (32.4%/5.9%). In addition, LY and TAM combination induced the apoptotic genes Caspase-3, Caspase-7, and p53, as well as p21 as cell cycle promotor, and significantly downregulated the anti-apoptotic genes Bcl-2 and survivin. The cell cycle assay revealed that the combination induced apoptosis by increasing the pre-G1: 28.3% compared to 1.6% of control. pAKT and Cyclin D1 protein expressions were significantly more downregulated by the combination treatment compared to the single drug treatment. The results suggested that the synergistic cytotoxic effect of LY and TAM is achieved by the induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest through cyclin D1, pAKT, caspases, and Bcl-2 signaling pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed E. Abdallah
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia; (M.E.A.); (M.A.A.); (R.A.A.); (A.T.B.); (M.H.M.)
| | - Mahmoud Zaki El-Readi
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia; (M.E.A.); (M.A.A.); (R.A.A.); (A.T.B.); (M.H.M.)
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71524, Egypt
| | - Mohammad Ahmad Althubiti
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia; (M.E.A.); (M.A.A.); (R.A.A.); (A.T.B.); (M.H.M.)
| | - Riyad Adnan Almaimani
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia; (M.E.A.); (M.A.A.); (R.A.A.); (A.T.B.); (M.H.M.)
| | - Amar Mohamed Ismail
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Al-Neelain University, Khartoum 11121, Sudan; (A.M.I.); (O.F.I.)
| | - Shakir Idris
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 7607, Saudi Arabia; (S.I.); (B.R.)
| | - Bassem Refaat
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 7607, Saudi Arabia; (S.I.); (B.R.)
| | - Waleed Hassan Almalki
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia;
| | - Abdullatif Taha Babakr
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia; (M.E.A.); (M.A.A.); (R.A.A.); (A.T.B.); (M.H.M.)
| | - Mohammed H. Mukhtar
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia; (M.E.A.); (M.A.A.); (R.A.A.); (A.T.B.); (M.H.M.)
| | - Ashraf N. Abdalla
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia;
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Institute, National Center for Research, Khartoum 2404, Sudan
| | - Omer Fadul Idris
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Al-Neelain University, Khartoum 11121, Sudan; (A.M.I.); (O.F.I.)
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