Effects of EF-24, RAD001, and paclitaxel on the expression profiles of apoptotic and anti-apoptotic genes

Context: Cancer cells exert differential responses to chemotherapeutics and inhibitors. To the best of our knowledge, a few or no research has been performed until now to determine the effect of EF-24 and RAD001 on MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells with regard to mRNA expression of apoptotic and anti-apoptotic genes. Aims: In this study, we aimed to investigate the mRNA expression levels of apoptotic (caspase 2 [CASP2], CASP8, and CASP9) and anti-apoptotic (B-cell lymphoma 2 [BCL2] and BCL2-like protein 1 [BCL2L1]) genes after exposure to paclitaxel, EF-24, and RAD001 in MDA-MB-231 cells. Materials and Methods: After treatment, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay was used to measure cell viability. mRNA expressions were analyzed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: Decrease in cell viability ratios was seen in a dose-dependent manner for all chemicals. MDA-MB-231 cells responded slightly different to paclitaxel, EF-24, and RAD001 at the transcriptional level of apoptotic and anti-apoptotic genes. Conclusions: Our results showed that response of these cells to paclitaxel, EF-24, and RAD001 was found different at the transcriptional level of apoptotic and antiapoptotic genes. Therefore, understanding transcriptional changes after these drug exposure may give us a change to figure out more realistic results of the apoptotic pathway inhibition.