Strong telomerase inhibitory effect of boldine in MCF-7 cell line

Introduction: Telomerase activity which compensates normal telomereattrition of replicating chromosomes is the main mechanism of immortality inmore than 90% of malignancies. Suppressing telomerase activity opens apromising anti-cancer strategy that attracts various research plans with differentmechanisms. Here we concerned on boldine a benzyl-isoquinoline derivative asa natural plant secondary metabolite.Material and Methods: Cytotoxicity of the compound was determined byMTT assay, to evaluate IC50 level of boldine. A modified quantitative real-timepolymerase chain reaction -based telomerase repeat amplification protocol (q-TRAP) was used to estimate relative telomerase activity in treated MCF-7 cellsin comparison with the untreated control cells.Results: IC50 of boldine after 48 h treatment of cells was measured as 160 μM.Q-TRAP measurements in equal amount of protein from each sample showedstrong inhibition of 48 hours treated samples to almost 78% of untreated controlcells.Conclusion: The results presented here suggested for the first time, boldine as ahighly potent anti-telomerase compound with a good potential for furtherdevelopment in anti-cancer drug design.

Keywords:

Telomerase , Cancer , boldine