Evaluation of changes in the expression of molecules of immune checkpoints of Sorafenib -treated Hepatocellular carcinoma cell

Abstract

The liver is one of the important organs involved in various and important metabolic activities of the body. This organ is composed of various cells, 90% of which are parenchymal cells or hepatocytes. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver malignancy and according to the latest Globocan update in 2020, it was the third cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. High expression of PDL-1 by cancer cells is known. Since the effects of antibodies against PD1-PDL-1 are known, alternative treatment methods such as sorafenib can be used to suppress a specific gene. In this study, the aim is to suppress the expression of PDL-1 genes by using sorafenib and evaluate the effect of this simultaneous suppression on the growth, migration and apoptosis of cancer cells.

Materials and methods:

First, the cell line (HepG2) (Hepatocellular carcinoma) was cultured. Then sorafenib was transfected into the desired cell line. In order to investigate this gene suppression on the rate of growth and proliferation of cancer cells, genes involved in growth, proliferation and metastasis (PDL-1, miR-30a, miR-34a, miR-513, miR-570) were investigated by PCR-RT method. After collecting data in Excell software, data organization was done and then data distribution was checked using Prism software and for normal distribution by Test-T test and for data with non-normal distribution by Whitney test. -Mann was used.

Results: We observed a significant increase in PDL-1 expression in the hepatocellular carcinoma cell line. Compared to the control group, our results showed a significantly decreased frequency of genes involved in metastasis and cell migration such as PDL-1, miR-30a, miR-34a, miR-513 and miR-570 after adding sorafenib.