Antiproliferative effect of thymoquinone on human colon cancer cells: Is it dependent on glycolytic pathway?

Abstract

ABSTRACT
 Purpose: In the present study, we aimed to investigate the anti-proliferative effect and metabolic activity of thymoquinone (TQ) on colon cancer cells (HCT-116).
 Material and Methods: Cell viability was determined by MTT analysis. Cells were treated with different concentrations of TQ (40, 60, 80, 100, 150, and 200 µM) on HCT-116 cells and half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were calculated by using the CompuSyn software program. In addition, glucose and lactate concentrations were measured from cell culture supernatants for RPMI medium, control and TQ (IC50 dose) groups. Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism 7.
 Results: Thymoquinone was found to be antiproliferative particularly in 40-200 µM concentrations. The IC50 concentration of TQ was calculated as 68 µM. Glucose levels of supernatants were 478, 384±8.5 and 412±19.7 mg/dL in RPMI medium, control and TQ group, respectively. Lactate levels were found as 20±3.5 µM in the control group and 8±1.1 µM in TQ group.
 Conclusion: The present study showed that TQ has an antiproliferative effect on HCT-116 in addition to its inhibitory effect on a glycolytic pathway.

Thymoquinone Potentially Modulates the Expression of Key Onco- and Tumor Suppressor miRNAs in Prostate and Colon Cancer Cell Lines: Insights from PC3 and HCT-15 Cells

“…Furthermore, the IC 50 values obtained for TQ treatment over a period of 24 h were 82.54 µM for HCT-15 and 55.83 µM for PC3 cell lines. Notably, a significant reduction in cell viability was observed in the concentration range of 50 to 210 µM for HCT-15, which is consistent with the findings in the HCT-116 cell line reported by Özkoç [64], who observed a marked decrease in cell viability in the range of 60 to 200 µM, and the IC 50 value for TQ was determined to be 68 µM at 24 h [64]. Additionally, Saffari-Chaleshtori [60] showed a notable decrease in cell viability in a range of 20 to 70 µM for PC3 cell lines, reporting an IC 50 of 40 µM, which is consistent with our assay obtaining an IC 50 of 55.83 µM.…”

“…Several research studies have demonstrated that TQ possesses the ability to suppress cell proliferation and enhance apoptosis in malignant cells [ 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. Prior research has demonstrated that TQ can induce dose-dependent cell death in colon and prostate cancer cell models, including the HCT-116 human colorectal carcinoma cell line, the HT-29 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line, and the PC3 prostatic adenocarcinoma cell line [ 60 , 64 , 65 ].…”