Curcumin and Silibinin Inhibit Telomerase Expression in T47D Human Breast Cancer Cells

Background: Telomerase has been considered as an attractive molecular target for breast cancer therapy. Themain objective of this work is to assess the inhibitory effects of silibinin and curcumin, two herbal substances,on telomerase gene expression in breast cancer cells. Materials and
Methods: For determination of cell viabilitytetrazolium-based assays were conducted after 24, 48, and 72 h exposure times and expression of human telomerasereverse transcriptase gene was measured with real-time PCR.
Results: Each compound exerted cytotoxic effectson T47D cells and inhibited telomerase gene expression, both in a time-and dose-dependent manner. The mixtureof curcumin and silibinin showed relatively more inhibitory effect on growth of T47D cells and hTERT geneexpression as compared with either agent alone.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that cell viability alongwith hTERT gene expression in breast cancer cells could be reduced by curcumin and silibinin.