Comparison of the Effects of Oxaliplatin on Nitric Oxide Synthase Activity in Colorectal Cancer (SW480) Compared to Normal Cells (HEK293)

Colon cancer is one of the most common tumors in the human population. There are many drugs on the market to treat different types of cancer, but their use is limited due to toxic effects and side effects, and in the last ten, experts in this field are looking for suitable alternatives to common anti-cancer drugs. This study was aimed to assess the comparison of the effects of oxaliplatin on the nitric oxide level in colorectal adenocarcinoma SW480 and non-tumor HEK293 cell lines. In this experimental study, Oxaliplatin was prepared at concentrations of 1.95, 3.90, 7.8, 15.6, 32.25, 62.5, 125, 250 and 500 μg/ml and the cytotoxic effect was investigated on HEK293 and SW480 cell lines using MTT method. Nitric oxide was measured by Grease method and Real Time PCR technique was applied to evaluate the iNOS gene expression. Finally, one-way ANOVA and t-test were used to analyze the data. The results of this study indicated that Oxaliplatin had a lethal effect on the SW480 cell line at concentrations of 7.8 to 250 μg/ml, but showed no cytotoxic effects on normal cell lines at other concentrations. Oxaliplatin at concentrations of 10, 20, and 40 μg/ml significantly increased nitric oxide production in SW480 cells compared to HEK293 cells, which served as the normal cell line. The results of Real Time PCR showed that the expression of the iNOS gene in both SW480 and HEK293 cells was not significantly different from the control group, but was higher. The results indicated that use of oxaliplatin can cause excellent therapeutic effects on cancer cell lines with minimum side effects.