Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Resistance to chemotherapy drugs is one of the most important treatment problems in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Apoptin due to its ability to induce apoptosis in tumor cells, has an undeniable potential in cancer treatment, especially those that respond lessly to chemotherapy. Therefore, in this study, the effect of induction of apoptin expression on induction of cell death in reh malignant lymphoblasts was investigated. METHODS: In this experimental study, after culturing of Reh cells (prepared by the Pasteur Institute), the entry of lentiviral vector, metabolic activity and cell proliferation were measured using flow cytometry, MTT and trypan blue at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours. Real time PCR was also used to determine the apoptin gene expression. FINDINGS: The results of this study indicate the design and construction of a suitable lentiviral vector that can infect more than 65 of the cells. Also, after infecting the cells with the vector, the apoptin gene expression rate was increased about 10 times to control, and subsequently, the cell viability decreased by 53 time-dependently (p <0.01). The results also showed that the inhibitory effect of apoptin gene expression on the metabolic activity of Reh cells was about 35 (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The results of the study showed that apoptin gene expression has anti-tumor activity in Reh cells and can be used as a promising therapy in ALL. © 2018, Babol University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.