Effect of Beberine on the survivin gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cell of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients in vitro

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a type of blood malignancies that is associated with excessive proliferation of B cells. The disease is more common in men over 50 years. CLL is associated with defective apoptosis in B cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of survivin protein as an inhibitor of apoptosis protein in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from CLL patients and normal subjects under the effect of berberine in vitro.
In this study, 12 patients with žCLL and six healthy age matched individuals as a control group were investigated. Peripheral blood was collected and, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were separated by ficoll separation. The PBMC were cultured with Berberine drug at 25µM concentration for 48h. Finally survivin mRNA expression was investigated following cDNA synthesis by Real time PCR using SYBR Green method.
The expression level of survivin mRNA in CLL patients (treated with drug) compared with patients without treatment (control group) decreased significantly (p0.05).
It seems that the drug Berberine through down-regulation of survivin gene expression induces apoptosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells while the drug has had no appreciable effect on normal cells. The results provide proof of principals for further investigation of Berberin in clinical setting for treatment of CLL.