• Examination of curcumin-metformin co-effect on breast cancer cell growth
  • Abolfazl rostamian tabari,1,* Pegah Gavidel,2 MOSSA GARDANEH,3
    1. National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology(NIGEB)
    2. National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology(NIGEB)
    3. National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology(NIGEB)


  • Introduction: The combination effect of anti-tumor compounds might accelerate their activity and synergizes their function against cancer cell growth and tumorigenicity. Turmeric extract curcumin and anti-diabetic drug metformin both have shown their anti-cancer effects in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we examine their combined effects on breast cancer cells.
  • Methods: Breast cancer cell line MCF7 was treated with serial concentrations of curcumin to determine the LD50 dose of the compound using the MTT viability assay. Next, we determined the LD50 of anti-diabetic drug metformin on these cells. We then co-applied the two compounds in random combinations dosages and collected a percentage of survival with each co-treatment. These data were applied to Design-Expert software to estimate the working concentrations of the two compounds in our co-treatment experiments. Combined concentrations of the two drugs were produced by the software and tested on cancer cells.
  • Results: The ID50 concentrations of curcumin and metformin were found to be, respectively 8 µM and 60 mM. We applied a range of their combinations and cell viability data used in Design Expert suggested new sets of concentrations as follows: for curcumin (µM): 4.5 And for metformin (mM): 20. Some of these suggested concentrations were tested and indeed killed a higher percentage of the cells compared to a single treatment. We are testing the co-effect of our compounds on cell invasiveness, apoptosis rate and expression of growth-related genes
  • Conclusion: Curcumin and metformin each have an effective effect on breast cancer cells, inhibiting their growth and inducing apoptosis. This dose was tested on the living organism, and the next steps were to synthesize the nanoparticles and study their effect.
  • Keywords: breast cancer, curcumin, metformin, cell survival