Vitexin Induces Apoptosis in MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells through the Regulation of Specific miRNAs Expression

In this research, we investigated microRNAs (miRNAs) expression profile in MCF-7 breast cancer cell line which treated with 150 µM vitexine. Profiling of miRNAs expression was performed using TaqMan MiRNA Array. Apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry and the expression of some genes involved in "anti-proliferative" signaling pathways were evaluated by western blotting and real time PCR methods. Twenty microRNAs were differentially expressed in vitexine treated cells compared to the control. Among them, let-7-b,c  were up regulated while miRNA-17-5p was down regulated with highest score. Also, we detected the expression changes of mentioned miRNAs target genes as well as genes involved in caspase apoptosis pathways. Our results provide the first evidence that vitexin can effect miRNA expression in MCF-7 cells. Also based on our finding, vitexin can be an attractive miRNA mediated chemo preventive and therapeutic agent in breast cancer.