Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is notorious for causing mortality and morbidity in most of the cancer patients which is spread to approximately 19.3 million people worldwide. Out of the various drugs available to treat breast cancers, thymoquinone (TMQ) and Paclitaxel (PCT) are known to have significant effects in varied mechanisms. However, only a limited literature is available to prove the activity when given as combined therapy. This opens a new arena for investigations to explore the efficacy of the combined drugs. As a result, a combination of these drugs may be a viable and risk-free treatment option for breast cancer.

Aims and Objectives: The present research was designed to evaluate the individual anti-cancer effects of TMQ and PCT to their combined effects on MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines in an effort to enhance the disease’s therapeutic profile.

Materials and Methods: Breast cancer (MCF-7) cell lines were cultured and incubated after exposure to the drugs in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium and MTT assay was conducted to determine the cell viability at 540 nm in UV spectroscopy. IC50 individual drugs treated groups TMQ and PCT and combined treatment group (TMQ + PCT) were determined using cell viability graph.

Results: Results showed that the IC50 of TMQ was 31.2 μg/mL, PCT was 57.28 μg/ml, and TMQ + PCT were 4.20 μg/mL which proves the significant activity of the combined drug therapy using combination of TMQ and PCT on MCF-7 cell lines.

Conclusion: This work enables researchers to investigate the potential for synergism between several anticancer medications to establish effective choices for the treatment of breast cancer with a fewer side effects.

Key words: Breast Cancer; MCF-7; Thymoquinone; Paclitaxel; In vitro Anticancer Activity