The combined effect of artemisia absinthium methanolic extract and vinblastine chemotherapy on apoptosis and decreasing chemotherapy drug concentration

Cancer is one of the major causes of death in the world, and it is the second leading cause of mortality after cardiovascular diseases. Cancer starts with the deformation of a natural cell caused by genetic mutations in DNA. This abnormal cell reproduces in an abnormal way by asexual reproduction, that is, it ignores signals related to regulation of cell's growth around it and obtains invasion characteristics and causes changes in surrounded tissues Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate in the world and Due to the injuries and complications of common cancer treatments namely chemotherapy, the most well-known chemotherapy drug for treating lung cancer is vinblastine. Use, natural supplements to be able to reduce the concentration of chemotherapy drugs while increasing the induction of apoptosis, it is important and useful and one of these compounds is the artemisia plant which has extensive anticancer activity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the induction of apoptosis by vinblastine with Artemisia extract on Calu.6 lung cancer cell line. In this study, cancer cells were treated with extract concentrations of 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 µg / ml and drug concentrations of 0.3, 0.6, 1, 2.5 and 5 nM, separately. Also, the combined treatment of Artemisia extract and Vinblastine extract with different concentrations was performed on the cells. The effect of the cells on the proliferation of human lung cancer cells in Calu.6 class was investigated by MTT method. Determining the type of cell death was performed by Annexin / PI method and DAPI colorimetric method. The results of MTT test showed that the combined treatment of Artemisia extract and Vinblastine inhibited the proliferation of Calu.6 cells. The staining results showed that the combined treatment leads to densities and failures in chromatin. Annexin V / PI test showed an increase in the percentage of apoptotic cells in cells treated with the extract and drug alone as well as in the synergistic state.