A combination of p-coumaric acid and metformin enhances the cytotoxicity of carboplatin and epirubicin in the gastric cancer cell line AGS

Document Type : Original article

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Department of Biology, School of Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

10.22099/mbrc.2026.56296.2311

Abstract

Gastric cancer is a deadly disease with low survival rates. The chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat gastric cancer are expensive and cause several side effects. Here, treatments involving natural compounds, established therapeutic agents, or a combination of both groups may present a fascinating alternative. Among the compounds with such promising anticancer potential are p-coumaric acid (pCA) and metformin (Met). They may resolve the problem of drug resistance as well. As a result, the present study investigated the chemotherapeutic cytotoxicity-enhancing effects of the combination of pCA and Met in the human gastric cell line AGS. Cytotoxicity of carboplatin and epirubicin was assessed in single treatments and in combination with 0.2 mM pCA and 0.8 mM Met. MTT-based viability measurements demonstrated that both carboplatin and epirubicin decreased the survival of AGS cells in a concentration-dependent fashion after 48 h of incubation. Compared to the single treatments, the combination treatments had significantly higher cytotoxicity. pCA and Met enhanced carboplatin and epirubicin cytotoxicity at concentrations significantly lower than their IC50 values. Collectively, these findings suggest that pCA and metformin (Met) warrant further investigation as promising therapeutic candidates for overcoming drug resistance in gastric cancer and could introduce new ways to fight against drug resistance in gastric cancer models.

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