The efficiency of amygdalin and doxorubicin combination on hepatocellular carcinoma and stromal myofibroblastic prostatic cells

This study investigated the possible therapeutic potential of Amygdalin either alone or in combination with Doxorubicin against HepG-2 liver cancer cells and on normal stromal myofibroblastic prostatic (WPMY-1) cells. After determination of IC50 concentrations of Amygdalin and Doxorubicin by MTT assay, each cell line was treated for 48 hrs as follows: Untreated control cells, Amygdalin-only treatment, Doxorubicin-only treatment, and a combination of Amygdalin + Doxorubicin treatment in an equal ratio (1:1). In HepG-2 cells, the treatment with Amygdalin or Doxorubicin significantly decreased the number of surviving cells in a dose-dependent manner. In normal WPMY-1 cells, the percentages of surviving cells were constant and unaffected by increasing Amygdalin or Doxorubicin concentrations, demonstrating no IC50 dose impact threshold. In HepG-2 cells, the Amygdalin and Doxorubicin 1:1 combination at their IC50 concentrations showed a synergistic effect (combination index (CI)= 0.69153). In addition, the average normalized mRNA expression of BCL-2 was downregulated and that of BAX was found overexpressed by all treatments in HepG-2 cells, most significant with the combination treatment. In WPMY-1 cells, both BCL-2 and BAX were downregulated after all treatments, in contrast to the probable behavior against cancer cells. The flow cytometry analysis showed that the combination treatment to HepG-2 cells induced a higher percentage of early and late apoptotic cells than >Doxorubicin >Amygdalin. In WPMY-1 cells, only early apoptotic cells were significantly enhanced by Doxorubicin either alone or in combination with Amygdalin, with no intergroup significant changes in apoptotic cell numbers. The study indicates that Amygdalin synergistically enhances the chemotherapeutic potential of Doxorubicin against malignant cells when used in combination through the induction of apoptosis.