Anti-proliferative effect of Thymoquinone on Raji cell line in Burkitt's lymphoma

Subject Areas : Journal of Animal Biology

Morteza Davoodi ¹ , Shahriyar Saeediyan ² , Reza Saghiri ³ , Zahra Zamani ⁴ , Gholamreza Bakhshi Khaniki ⁵

1 - Department of Biochemistry, Payame Noor university, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Biochemistry, Payame Noor university, Tehran, Iran
3 - Department of Biochemistry, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
4 - Department of Biochemistry, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
5 - Department of Plant Sciences, Payame Noor university, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2022-04-29 Accepted : 2022-09-19 Published : 2023-02-20

Keywords: Nigella sativa, RT-PCR, Thymoquinone, Burkitt's lymphoma, Raji cells,

Abstract :

Medicinal plants are of interest due to their cheapness, accessibility and better acceptance by patients. One of these plants is black seed (Nigella sativa). In this study, the anti-proliferative effect of thymoquinone, which is the main component of black seed oil, is investigated on Raji cells. Raji cells are cancerous B lymphocytes that are seen in the germinal centers of Burkitt's lymphoma. In present study, Raji cells were treated with different dilutions of thymoquinone from 0 to 1000 μg/ml and the percentage of living cells was determined by trypan blue method and MTT test. Also, flow cytometry and Annexin V-FITC/PI kit were used to show the percentage of cells in different stages of growth. The expression of c-Myc gene, which is the most important altered gene in the development of Burkitt's lymphoma, was investigated by Real Time-PCR method. Statistical analysis was also done using SPSS 2020 software. This study showed that thymoquinone can inhibit the growth of Raji cells in a concentration-dependent and time-dependent manner. Thymoquinone, while suppressing the expression of c-Myc gene with a significant percentage, causes Raji cells to enter the stage of programmed death or apoptosis, and has the potential to be used as an adjunctive treatment for Burkitt's lymphoma.

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