A study of the effect of digitoxin on the immune response of panc-1 cell line compared to BxPC-3 cell line in vitro

This project had a focus on the effect of digitoxin on inflammation in cancer Panc-1 cell line compared to BxPC-3 cell line. Pancreatic cancer, especially the form pancreatic adenocarcinoma is the fourth cause for cancer deaths, seen in the Western world. The progression and the initiation of the disease is a consequence of an interplay between genetic and inflammation events that are linked. Digitoxin is a cardiac glycoside with effect on various cancer types. Panc-1 cells and BxPC-3 cells were treated with different concentrations of digitoxin for 48 hours. Cell viability was measured, ELISA to measure expression of pro-IL-1β and IL-1β, since they are involved in the pathway and qPCR to measure gene expression. Gene expression was done to see if digitoxin affected the genes in the inflammasome pathway. The cell viability decreased with increasing concentration of digitoxin for both cell lines. TNFα was mostly downregulated in both Panc-1 and BxPC-3. NF-κB was upregulated in both cell lines. IL-1β was upregulated in BxPC-3 while gene expression was not seen in Panc-1. Lastly, IL-18 was downregulated in Panc-1, but upregulated in BxPC-3. A downregulation of IL-1β protein expression was seen in Panc-1 and in BxPC-3, a downregulation of pro IL-1β in Panc-1 and a downregulation of pro IL-1β in BxPC-3 was seen in ELISA. This study might provide an insight that is valuable for the researchers in the future to treat cancer from the perspective of an immune disorder