The Effect of Sargassum Angustifolium-derived AgNPs on Apoptosis-associated Genes in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cells

INTRODUCTION: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is among the most prevalent child cancers. Moreover, chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation have failed to secure the survival of patients in some cases. Various researches have revealed that glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3) inhibitors can contain the growth of some cancers. Furthermore, inositol trisphosphate receptor (IP3R) exists in all cell types and is implicated in metastasis. The application of organic, natural substances offers new prospects for the treatment of this condition. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to examine the silver nanoparticles synthesized from Sargassum Angustifolium on the expression of IP3 and GSK receptors in ALL Jurkat cells. METHODS: We isolated Sargassum Angustifolium extract and mixed it with silver nanoparticles (NPs) and treated the cells with the mixture. The changes in the expression of GSKα, IP3R3 and GSKβ genes in the Jurkat cell line were studied. In this research, quantitative mRNA expression of the target gene was measured using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) genes were studied as the internal control. The experiments were replicated 3 times. Data analysis was performed through one-way ANOVA and t-test. The significance level was considered less than 0.05. RESULTS: The results of this study revealed that different concentrations of the extracts significantly decreased the expression levels of GSKα, IP3R3 and GSKβ gene in Jurkat cells compared to control groups. The combination of algae extract and AgNPs was consistently the most effective group. CONCLUSION: silver nanoparticles synthesized from sargassum algae in the Persian Gulf could be utilized to treat ALL cancers and even other tumors.