Comparison apoptotic effects of Iranian Artemis (Artemisia scoparia and sieberi) with Taxol on SK _BR3 breast cancer cell line

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women. Chemotherapy drugs such as taxol often lead to toxicity. Artemisia from Asteraceae family, contain flavonoids such as Artemisin which is one of the most important medicinal plants in the world. Therefore, in the present study the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of two ethanol extract (Artemisia scoparia, Artemisia siberia) of Artemisia species is studied and compared with Taxol on SK-BR-3 breast cancer cell line. In this study, the ethanol extract was prepared. Concentrations of the mentioned ethanol extracts prepared: Artemisia siberia: 60, 30, 15, 7.5 mg/ml and Artemisia scoparia: 1.25, 0.63, 0.31, 0.16 mg/ml. The concentration of Paclitaxel (100 µM) was determined in 24, 48 and 72 hours by MTT assay. The apoptotic effects and induced death were measured using Annexin V and PI. The MTT results indicated that cytotoxic effects of two Artemisia extracts and Taxol drug are dose-dependent. The obtained IC50 after treatment at 24, 48, 72 hours were (0.55, 0.35, 0.31 mg/ml) and 34.14, 28.02, 18), respectively for Artemisia scoparia and Artemisia siberia. Also, paclitaxel was 56.74, 36.28, and 21.09 (μM). Annexin and PI measurement showed that both extracts, Artemisia Siberia 3.53% and Artemisia scoparia 4.71%, compared to Taxol 5.13% had apoptosis effect and influence on induction of primary and secondary apoptosis, significantly (p<0.05). Alcoholic extract of Artemisia scoparia with further investigation has the potential for use as a drug for breast cancer treatment.