INVITRO EVALUATION OF ANTI-CANCER ACTIVITY OF 5-FLOUROURACIL AND CURCUMIN IN SINGLE AND COMBINED FORMS AGAINST BREAST AND COLON CANCER CELL LINES

The present study was undertaken to assess the chemotherapeutic activity of 5-fluorouracil and the herbal curcumin extract in single and in combination doses against the human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7 and colon cancer cell line Caco-2. The IC50 values of curcumin and 5-FU against both cell lines revealed that curcumin had a higher cytotoxicity against breast and colon cancer cells (IC50= 30.01 and 27.57µg/ml) than 5-FU (IC50= 60.4 and 57.457µg/ml). The cytotoxic activity of 5-FU may be due to inhibition of DNA synthesis and the cytotoxic activity of curcumin may be due to inducing apoptosis by inhibiting proliferation of cancer cells by cell cycle arrest. Some toxic effect of test materials were observed including morphological, apoptotic changes such as cell membrane blebbing, nuclear materials fragmentation, shrinkage and margination. Anticancer potential was confirmed based on pro-apoptotic regulation of the two genes Bax and p53up compared to the internal control GABDH gene. It was found that 5-FU showed a better gene up regulation than curcumin. Synergetic potential of curcumin to 5-FU was detected regarding gene expression and related pathological changes.