Assessment of the Regulatory Effect of Novel Indole-Core-Based Compound on Apoptosis and Cell Survival of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cell Line

Background: Heterocyclic compounds are generally introduced as important valuable sources of pharmacologically active compounds. Amongst these compounds, the indole is largely distributed within the bioactive molecules, containing antitumor agents. Due to their unique physiochemical and biological properties, indole and its derivatives have been used as privileged scaffolds for designing antitumor agents. Objectives: The current experimental study aimed to evaluate the anti-cancer effects of a novel compound with indole-core-base on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells. Methods: Following being cultured, AML cells that had been multiplicities were treated by the demonstrated concentration of novel indole compounds (at doses of 100-300µg/mL) for 24 h. The percentage of living and dead cells was subsequently determined by trypan bluedye (MERK, Germany). The survival rate of treated cells was also examined by MTT assay. The calculated fold changes of the studied genes expression against β-actin were determined by the real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. The collected data were statistically analyzed by student t-test and repeated measure test. Results: Results showed that the intended novel indole-core-based derivative (C18H10N2F6O) followed both dose-dependent cytotoxic and anti-proliferative patterns on the AML cell line. The compound was able to induce apoptosis in 50% of the cells at the dose of 250µg/mL. Real-time  PCR analysis indicated that in compound-treated cells the gene expression level of Bcl-2 has been downregulated, while Bax was upregulated, compared to untreated control cells. Conclusion: Despite the lack of knowledge in this regard, in this study, results of this leading mechanism(s) that may run by the compound indicated that indole3carbaldehyde derivative has cytotoxic effects on AML cells in a dose-dependent fashion.