DIOSCIN INDUCES APOPTOSIS IN BREAST CANCER CELL LINES THROUGH MITOCHONDRIAL SIGNALING PATHWAY

Dioscin, a natural steroid glucoside, has been broadly investigated. However, its anti-cancer activities on human breast cancer cells are still not clear. In this study, we investigated the effect of Dioscin on the activities of Caspase 3 and 9 and also the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins BAX and BCL-2 were examined. The activities of Caspase 3 and 9 in Dioscin-treated groups were significantly increased compared with control group. Western blotting results showed that Dioscin significantly down regulated the expressions of BCL-2 and upregulated the expressions of BAX. This results indicate that the Dioscin has anticancer activities against human breast cancer cells through activating mitochondrial signaling pathway. Moreover, in silico analysis of proteinssuch as Caspase 3, Caspase 9, BAX and BCL-2 were analyzed. The molecular docking results showed that the Dioscin has good binding affinity with all the proteins with significant docking score.