In vitro CYTOTOXIC EFFECTS OF SOME COVID-19 DRUGS ON LUNG CANCER CELLS

Abstract

Cancer, which is the second most common cause of death after cardiovascular diseases, is one of the most important health problems of today. Discovery of effective treatments and drugs are important in cancer treatment. The COVID-19 epidemic, which broke out in Wuhan province of China in December 2019 and is considered as a pandemic worldwide, affected millions of people. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes this epidemic, affects the lungs, heart, brain, kidneys, gastrointestinal system, ovaries and testicles and various drugs are used in the treatment. In this study, we aimed to determine the cytotoxic effect of favipiravir, dornase alfa and ivermectin, which are drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19, on human lung cancer cell line (A549). Favipiravir, dornase alfa and ivermectin concentrations were prepared in doubly increasing doses (0.5-64 mu g/mL). The prepared concentrations were tested on human A549 cells. After 24 hours of incubation, the cytotoxic effects of the drugs on cancer cells were detected by the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) method. The results were given as % viability. It was determined that favipiravir, dornase alfa and ivermectin significantly decreased the cell viability in lung cancer cell line with increasing application doses (p<0.05).