Breast cancer is the leading invasive cancer in women globally. This study aimed at evaluating the anti-apoptotic activity of p-Coumaric acid (PCA) on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Experiments were conducted in which the MCF-7 cell line was treated with PCA. which showed decreased cell viability, increased lactate dehydrogenase activity, and caspase-3 activation. The results were evaluated with real-time polymerase chain reaction which revealed that PCA reduced the amount of H-Ras and K-Ras transcript in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. In the presence of PCA there was a significant increase in the levels of mRNA gene Bax and late apoptotic cells which was dose dependent. It also retarded the relative expression of antiapoptotic gene, Bcl2 in treated cells. The results suggest that PCA exhibits anti-cancer properties against MCF-7 cells. PCA inhibited the growth of MCF7 cell. The optimum concentration of PCA was 75-150 mM. PCA can inhibit the growth of MCF-7 cells by reducing Ras expression and inducing cell apoptosis. Our results suggest that PCA could prove valuable in the search for possible inhibitors of Ras oncogene functionality and gain further support for its potential utilization in the treatment of patients with breast cancer. PCA is safe and could complement current treatments employed for the disease.
Keywords: Apoptosis; Caspase; H-Ras oncogenes; N-Ras oncogenes; p-Coumaric acid.