Synergistic effects of coralyne and paclitaxel on cell migration and proliferation of breast cancer cells lines

Breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancer in woman. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is most aggressive form of breast cancer. There is a growing interest in the use of natural products in combinational chemotherapy to improve the effectiveness in combating proliferation of cancer cells. Here, we hypothesized that coralyne in combination with paclitaxel may exhibit synergistic effect on inhibition of proliferation, migration and induction of apoptosis in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines. MTT and BrdU incorporation assays were performed to study the effect of drugs alone and in combination on cell cytotoxicity and proliferation of the breast cancer cell lines, respectively. Adhesion and wound healing assays were performed to study the cell and extracellular matrix interactions. In addition, expression of proliferation marker ki-67 and apoptotic markers Bax and Bcl-2 was determined to study the effect of coralyne in combination with paclitaxel by reverse transcriptase PCR and confirmed by Western blot. The results indicated the synergism between coralyne and paclitaxel on proliferation and migration of breast cancer cell lines. This study also showed that combinational drug treatment decreased the expression of ki-67 and there was an increase in pro apoptotic factor Bax with decreased in expression of anti-apoptotic factor Bcl-2 in breast cancer cell lines with negligible effect on normal breast cell line. Overall, our data described the promising therapeutic potential of coralyne in combination with paclitaxel in treating breast cancer at lower effective dose.

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