How We Can Induce Apoptosis To Treat Leukemia
Leukemia is a disease which is caused by an aggressive malignancy via the rapid growth of abnormal white blood cells. (Chueh) It is treated by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy
agents. This way of treatment can help save lives but the results are not good enough. (Chueh) Because of this, the scientist are looking for new ways to stop white blood cells from the rapid growth. Currently, one of the
most effective ways to kill cancer cells is to induce apoptosis in them.
There are some evidence that the increase of plant-based food in your diet can lower your risk of having cancer. Using this information, the scientist used GA, an active compound in Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), to induce apoptosis on a mouse leukemia cell line WEHI-3. (Chueh, Introduction) They used a contrast-phase microscope to see any morphological changes and flow cytometry to know the number of cells. The research has shown that the number of cells has decreased, meaning that the growth of these cells was inhibited. To know the reason for inhibited cell growth scientist used DAPI staining and comet assay. It was shown that the reason for this is GA-induced DNA damage and chromatin condensation (apoptosis). Also, a DNA gel electrophoresis has shown that GA induced DNA fragmentation. After this, they used measured the production of ROS and caspace-3 activities as it shown that they are associated with apoptosis. GA promoted the production of ROS and caspase-3 activities. Using western blotting to detect proteins that are indicating the collapse of certain organelles they have estimated that GA induced apoptosis in WEHI-3 cells is caspase-dependent, causes ER stress and runs through mitochondria-dependent pathways. (Chueh, Materials and methods) All things considered, it is safe to say that GA is causing apoptosis on a mouse leukemia cell line WEHI-3. (Chueh)
Actually, there are a lot of studies in which scientist are using a plant-based compound. In another paper, researchers used polyphyllin D, a compound derived from Paris polyphylla, which demonstrated strong
anticancer activities. (Yang 17) They used K562 line of human leukemia cells. To determine the quantity of cells, they were analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. Moreover, they were using flow cytometry, so the team could show an apoptosis analysis, as well as a measurement of the mitochondrial membrane potential and CD14 protein expression. Furthermore, they were using Wright-Giemsa staining, so the scientist could determine
cell margin and morphological characteristics of the nuclei. Not to mention, using western blotting to detect proteins that are indicating the collapse of certain organelles. (Yang 18-20) This has shown that polyphyllin D could significantly inhibit the proliferation of K562 cells. Not only polyphyllin D induced apoptosis through the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, it increasing CD14 expression on the surface of K562 cells. This is important …
