hesperidin plus berberine induces potent anticancer effects on mouse breast cancer

Phytochemicals play a crucial role in the pharmaceutical and food industries due to their significant properties. hesperidin is a flavanone glycoside that is found abundantly in citrus fruits. it is recognized as a promising agent with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer properties. berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid commonly extracted from the medicinal plant rhizoma coptidis. recent evidence indicates that berberine exhibits multiple therapeutic properties, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, and anticancer activities. in this research, we used both berberine and hesperidin simultaneously and separately to determine their anticancer effects on murine breast cancer cells (4t1 cells). to investigate the anticancer effects of hesperidin and berberine, different concentrations of them (20, 40, 60, and 100 ug/ml) and also, both berberine and hesperidin simultaneously in half of their concentration, were affected on the breast cancer cells and the viability of the cancer cells was assessed by the mtt technique. the expression of genes involved in apoptosis was estimated by the qrt-pcr method. both hesperidin and berberine reduced the viability of breast cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. however, this reduction was more significant in cells treated with a combination of both hesperidin and berberine. additionally, an evaluation of genes involved in the induction of apoptosis in cancer cells revealed that the bax gene was expressed more frequently in cells treated with both hesperidin and berberine than in separate treatments, which was statistically significant. in contrast, the expression of the bcl-2 gene was decreased in all treatment groups, and this was not statistically significant. overall, this study s results demonstrated that co-treatment with hesperidine and berberine exhibited the most significant anticancer activity and could serve as a therapeutic agent for murine breast cancer cells (4t1 cells).