Apoptotic effect of thymoquinone on OVCAR3 cells via the P53 and CASP3 activation.

Purpose: The limitations in cancer treatment and the inadequacy of classical methods have made it necessary to discover therapeutics in cancer treatment. The cytotoxicity of thymoquinone, which has quite different properties in terms of biological activities, in ovarian cancer cells, and the changes in the expression levels of apoptotic genes (p53/caspase-3 (casp-3)) were investigated.

Methods: In the study, thymoquinone (5, 50, 100, 250 and 500 µM and 24, 48, 72 hours) were applied to ovarian adenocarcinoma cancer cell line (OVCAR3), at different concentrations. Cytotoxic effect of thymoquinone on OVCAR-3 cells were analyzed by MTT method, and apoptotic and pro-apoptotic gene expression levels (p53, Casp-3) of thymoquinone in cancer cells were analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Results: Thymoquinone, whose effect has been revealed in many types of cancer, was shown to significantly reduce the viability of OVCAR3 cancer cells depending on the dose and time (p < 0.05). It was also determined that Casp-3 and p53 gene expressions increased in OVCAR3 cells.

Conclusions: Considering the in-vitro cytotoxic activity and apoptotic gene expressions of thymoquinone, an important treatment agent, since it is a promising agent for the future of cancer treatment, more comprehensive studies may pave the way for its clinical use.