Evaluate the Effect of Artesunate and Cisplatin alone and in Combination in Viability and HIF-1α Gene on Prostate Cancer Cell Line and Compare it with the Viability on Normal HECK-293 Cell Line

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect on viability and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha expression in prostate cancer 3 cell line and normal heck cell line of artesunate and cisplatin and comparing their effect alone and in combination

Study Design: Comparative study
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Medicine College, Babylon University, Hillah, Iraq, from 1st October 2024 to 31st March 2025.

Methodology: Prostate cancer 3 cell lines and heck-293 cell line cultured in Roswell Park Memorial Institute supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and 1% penicillin/streptomycin. Cells maintained in a humidified incubator at 37 °C. Roswell Park Memorial Institute colorimetric assay performed by seeding prostate cancer cell line in 96-well plate at density of (1x10^4) cells/well. Incubated for 24hour then treated with various concentrations
of artesunate and cisplatin alone and in combination then after 24 hours incubation treated with 5mg/ml MTT solution and incubated for four hours then add Dimeythyl solution and measured the result by using microplate
reader at 570 nm.

Results: Artesunate showed significant inhibition at PC3 in one-way Anova p<0.001 the IC50 is 148.61 µg/ml and in normal heck cell line IC50 is 946.125 µg/ml the selectivity index is 6.4. artesunate also upregulates the HIF-1α gene of PC3 cell line in low concentration p<0.001but reduces this regulation in higher concentration. the IC50 of cisplatin in heck cell line is 501.62 µg/ml and in PC3 cell line is 606.9 µg/ml. cisplatin shows up significant up regulation on HIF-1 gene in all concentration. Combination index shows synergy in low doses CI < 1.

Conclusion: Artesunate exhibit significant anticancer effect on PC3 cell line and moderate safety profile comparing with cisplatin which is lower potency and safety. artesunate reducing the up regulation of survival gene HIF-1α opposite to cisplatin which up regulates HIF-1α gene in all concentrations.