Carvacrol and Cancer Treatment: The Effect of Carvacrol in Inducing Apoptosis of Breast Cancer Cells

Carvacrol is a natural monoterpene phenolic compound that has biological activities with therapeutic applications, and this study aimed to investigate the apoptotic effect of Carvacrol on the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231.

After the preparation and cultivation of MDA-MB-231 cells, the IC50 value of Carvacrol on the cells was evaluated by the MTT assay method, and then the induction of apoptosis in the cell line treated with different concentrations of Carvacrol was observed by DAPI staining. The qPCR method was used to check the expression levels of Bax, P53, and Bcl-2 genes at the mRNA level. The results were analyzed using GraphPad Prism 9 software.

The results showed that the cytotoxicity of Carvacrol against MDA-MB-231 cancer cells was dose-dependent at 24 (P=0.034) and 48 (P=0.041) hours. The IC50 of Carvacrol at 48 h was 154.2 μM. The MDA-MB-231 cells treated with Carvacrol showed induction of apoptosis from the mitochondrial pathway by increasing the expression of P53 and BAX genes and decreasing the expression of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 gene. In addition, the number of apoptotic cells with dense DNA increased significantly in the Carvacrol treatment group (P=0.001).

This study showed that treatment of the MDA-MB-231 cell line with Carvacrol can inhibit its growth and proliferation through the induction of apoptosis from the BAX/BCL-2 pathway. Considering the significant inhibitory effect of the treatment of cells with the Carvacrol compound, it seems that there is a suitable research field for using this compound in the control and treatment of breast cancer.