Effects of Valproic Acid with Different Drugs in Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines: An in vitro Study

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, ranked seventh among all cancers globally. In recent trends, there has been an increased use of natural compounds combined with conventional drugs in clinical trials to combat chemotherapeutic resistance. Valproic acid, a short-chain fatty acid, Resveratrol, Silymarin, and Cyclophosphamide are some of the compounds widely studied for various cancer treatments. Hence, an in vitro attempt at the combinatorial effect of drugs was investigated in human ovarian adenocarcinoma cells OVCAR-3 and SKOV-3. Cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and antioxidant scavenging activity were studied by MTT, AO/EB, and DPPH assay, respectively. In addition, analysis of quantitative residual protein of treated cell culture supernatants was evaluated in OVCAR-3 and SKOV-3. The combination of valproic acid with resveratrol and silymarin showed effective IC50 and apoptosis when compared with cyclophosphamide. The antioxidant activity of valproic acid in combination with resveratrol and silymarin was 88% and 81%, respectively, at 50μg/ml. The study highlights the effective treatment strategy of combinatorial drugs for ovarian cancer. However, the limitations extend towards a molecular approach in the future for further validation with various other in vitro methods and preclinical studies.