EVALUATION OF ANTICANCER EFFECT OF RECOMBINANT AZURIN TOXIN ON BREAST CANCER CELL LINE

Breast cancer is the most common type of malignancy among women. Today, various methods of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy are used to treat cancer. However, among the disadvantages and side effects of these methods are the destruction of normal cells. This has led researchers to turn to new treatment methods with low side effects. Azurin is a direct bacterial redox metalloprotein with cytotoxic effects produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Recombinant azurin toxin can be used to treat breast cancer by reducing side effects on normal cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anticancer effect of recombinant azurin toxin on breast cancer cell line.

In this experimental study, after cloning and expression of recombinant azurin in E. coli, the cytotoxic effect of different concentrations of azurin on MCF7 breast cancer cells and normal HEK293 cells was evaluated by MTT assay.

Azurin at all concentrations and even at a concentration of 1 mg/ml had a potential cytotoxic effect on MCF7 cell line than HEK293 cell line. The increase in cytotoxicity and decrease in the survival of cancer cells was associated with the increase in the concentration of azurin protein; therefore, the percentage of cytotoxicity of this protein in the MCF7 cell line was directly related to the concentration of recombinant protein, and the percentage of survival of cancer cells was inversely related to the concentration of recombinant protein.

The results of this study showed that azurin can partly act selectively against breast cancer cell. These findings are hopeful for the use of azurin as a new and low-cost therapeutic agent for the treatment of breast cancer.