Apoptotic Effect of Boron Derivatives on HL-60 Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Cell Line

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common form of acute leukemia and the overall 5-year survival in AML patients is 40–45% in young patients and less than 10% in elderly patients. Therefore, there is still a need to improve therapeutic approaches. After development of boron-based anticancer drugs (such as Bortezomib), boron compounds have gained attention with possible anti-leukemic feature. In this study, we evaluated anti-tumoral effects of borax pentahydrate (BP) and disodium pentaborate decahydrate (DPD) on leukemic cell line (HL-60). Cell viability was assessed by MTT assay and apoptotic effect of the compounds were evaluated by flow cytometry and cleaved PARP level detection by western blot. We observed that BP (24 mM) and DPD (6 mM) exhibit anti-leukemic effect via induction of apoptosis. Our study suggest that BP and DPD have potential anti-leukemic effect, which needs to be confirmed by further wide-spectrum studies.