Authors: Anna Dmoszynska Monika Podhorecka Piotr Klimek Norbert Grzasko
Publish Date: 2006/03/08
Volume: 62, Issue: 4, Pages: 325-329
Abstract
Multiple myeloma is characterized by an accumulation of plasma cells in bone marrow Despite many therapeutic regimens introduced recently the prognosis for patients suffering from treatmentresistant or relapsing multiple myeloma is still very poor Thus there is an urgent medical need for novel innovative drugs Thalidomide is successfully used in resistant or relapsing myeloma patients being reported to induce apoptosis or G1 growth arrest of myeloma cells and to regulate microvessel density and cytokine secretion Lovastatin largely used for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia is another promising drug in multiple myeloma High doses of lovastatin have been shown to have antiproliferative effect by inhibition of malignant cell proliferation and inducing programmed cell deathIn this study we tried to assess whether thalidomide and lovastatin had a combined effect on apoptosis of myeloma cells We analyzed apoptosis induced by mixture of these two drugs in shortterm cell culture of myeloma plasmocytes To assess apoptosis we used Annexin V and propidium iodide binding We also examined the regulation of BCL2 and BAX protein expression in the population of CD138+ plasmocytes The cells were analyzed with the use of flow cytometry technique The experiments were done before and after 72 h of cell cultureWe detected a higher rate of apoptosis induced by lovastatin and thalidomide mixture in comparison to apoptosis induced by lovastatin or thalidomide alone In most patients the BCL2/BAX ratio was lower in cell cultures supplemented with mixture of lovastatin and thalidomide in comparison with cell cultures supplemented with lovastatin or thalidomide aloneBased on our research we conclude that the mixture of lovastatin and thalidomide may increase the rate of multiple myeloma cells apoptosis in comparison to the single drug and the precise mechanism of this effect should be approved by further research
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