Comparison of Umbelliprenin and Auraptene in Cytotoxic Effects and Myeloid Cell Leukaemia Type-1 (Mcl-1) Gene Expression

Induction of apoptosis in tumour cells is one of the mechanisms of chemotherapy. Myeloid cell leukaemia type 1 is one of the Bcl-2 protein families that make an important role in chemo-resistance to drugs. Thus, down-regulation of myeloid cell leukaemia type 1 gene is one of the aims in chemotherapy. Umbelliprenin and auraptene are naturally occurring coumarins, which exhibit cytotoxic and apoptosis inducing capabilities. In this study, we compared the cytotoxicity of these two coumarins against some cancer cell lines by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay method. In the next step, we tested the effect of auraptene on myeloid cell leukaemia type 1 gene expression in Jurkat cells by real time polymerase chain reaction method. We found that umbelliprenin and auraptene possessed cytotoxic effect against the tested cancer cell lines. Auraptene is more cytotoxic than umbelliprenin. We also found that auraptene down-regulated myeloid cell leukaemia type 1 gene expression in a pattern that was different from umbelliprenin.