The Effects of Valproic Acid on Cell Viability of Breast Cancer and Genotoxicity of Human Lymphocytes Blood Cell Line

Introduction: Breast cancer is a complicated and multifactor disease in which so many genetic and environment agents play important roles. Nowadays different ways are available for cancer therapy such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy that are very costly and have various side effects. Valproic acid is an inhibitor of histone deacetylase enzyme that is effective on apoptosis of some cancerous cells. Aim: The aim of this research is to evaluate the toxic effects of this drug on both normal and cancerous cells, alongside with causing genetic disorder on peripheral blood lymphocytes as a model to evaluate genetic disorder. Material and methods: Cells were incubated with different concentrations of valproic acid and cisplatin. This incubation lead to cytotoxicity and Geno toxicity and then the viability of cells were measured. Cellular viability as well as Geno toxicity was assessed by MTT assay and micronucleus assay. Results: Results shows that valproic acid has an ability to significantly reduce the viability of breast cancer cells. Also toxic doses of valproic acid can affect BEAS-2B cells and can detract the viability of cells. Conclusion: This research proves the efficacy of valproic acid on cellular activity of Mcf-7 cell line and BEAS-2B cell line. This effect is probably associated with the ability of valproic acid to inhibit histone deacetylase enzyme and stop cells from growing and specialization and cause death in tumor cells, and the advantage of these drug class is that they have minimum effect on normal cells so they kill them rarely.