Combined effects of paederus beetle extract and gamma irradiation on HeLa cells

Objective(s): Cervical cancer is a malignancy that establishes the second most common reason of cancer mortality in women throughout the world. Paederus beetle ( Paederus fuscipes ) extract (PBE), contains bioactive compounds such as pederine with cytotoxic properties. It blocks DNA and protein synthesis at very low concentrations. In this investigation we tried to determine the combined effects of PBE and gamma irradiation on HeLa cells.Materials and Methods: The viability of the cells was measured by two methods as known MTT and Colony assay. Results: We found out that supplementing gamma irradiation therapy with PBE does not improve the cell death and it might even interfere with its cytotoxicty at concentrations below 0.1ng/ml(viability for irradiation vs irradiation + PBE, 37% : 60%).Conclusion: This effect might be due to hormetic effect of PBE at low doses which poses its protective effects at low concentrations against gamma radiation.

Keywords:

Pederine , Radiosensitizer , Gamma irradiation , Radioprotection