Derya Okuyan, Ayla Solmaz Avcıkurt, Muhammed Enes Bulut
Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy are the most commonly used methods in the treatment of breast cancer. However, due to the side effects of these treatments, symptoms are quite aggressive and painful. Therefore, herbal treatments have become prominent. No studies have been conducted on the aqueous extract of Althaea officinalis L, a plant noted for its immunomodulatory, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antitussive, antiviral, and hypoglycemic bioactivities. Therefore, in this study, we determined the dose- and time-dependent effects of the aqueous extract of Althaea officinalis flowers on viability and apoptosis-related genes in the MCF-7 cell line. To examine the effect of Althaea officinalis L. on cell viability, different concentrations of Althaea officinalis L. were applied to MCF-7 cells and analyzed at different time intervals (24, 48, and 72 hours) using the MTT method. Additionally, to determine the effect of cytotoxic doses on cell death at each hour, changes in gene expression levels of apoptosis-related genes Caspase-3, Bax and, Bcl-2 were determined by qRT-PCR. According to the results, the IC50 doses were determined to be 837.83 µg/mL, 1.51 mg/mL, and 235.84 µg/mL at 24, 48, and 72 hours, respectively. The mRNA expression levels of Caspase-3, Bax and, Bcl-2 genes involved in the apoptotic process were analyzed by qPCR. It was determined that Bcl-2 gene expression decreased, while Bax and Caspase-3 expression levels increased. The anti-cancer properties of Althaea officinalis L. became notable due to the cytotoxic effect of its aqueous extract on MCF-7 cells and its induction of apoptosis.