Comparison between Platinum-Azidothymidine and Azidothymidine Effects on Bcl-2 and Telomerase Gene Expression in Rats with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background: high expression of telomerase and bcl-2 are reported in hepatocellular carcinoma. some anticancer drugs show their effects through reduction of these factors. in this study, it was aimed to investigate the effects of a new synthetic compound, platinum azidothymidine, on inhibition of telomerase and bcl-2 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma compared to azidothymidine. methods: to study the effects of pt-azt on hepatocellular carcinoma and compare its effects with azt in inhibition of telomerase and bcl-2 gene expression, pathogen-free male wistar rats (n=100) were used. they were randomly divided to 4 groups (n=25). group a as the control group contained 25 healthy rats; in the rest of animals, preneoplastic lesions were induced in their livers (groups b, c, and d) using solt-farber resistant hepatocyte protocol. cancer development was approved by a pathology laboratory. group b was negative control (untreated), groups c and d were treated by intraperitoneal injection (ip) of pt-azt (0.9 mg/kg/day) and azt (0.3 mg/kg/day), respectively for 14 days. at the end of the protocol, all rats were sacrificed and bcl-2 and telomerase gene expression was determined using real -time pcr. results: no tumor in the livers was found in group a at any point of the study, but it was present in livers of all animals in b, c and d groups. results showed that telomerase and bcl-2 expression was significantly lower in group c compared with group b(0.473±0.231 vs. 5.137±5.08, p<0.001, for telomerase expression, and 0.41±0.276 vs. 7.25±11.6, p<0.001, for bcl-2 expression) and also compared with group d (0.473±0.231 vs. 3.48±4.02, p<0.001, for telomerase expression, and 0.41±0.276 vs. 4.93±18, p<0.001, for bcl-2 expression).conclusion: for the first time, it was demonstrated that pt-azt has more inhibitory effect on telomerase and bcl-2 expression than azt. it effectively inhibits the growth of liver tumor in rats by extending apoptosis.