IN SILICO INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF LYCOPENE ON THE EXPRESSION OF BRCA1 AND BRCA2 INHIBITOR GENES IN PROSTATE CANCER

Background & Aims: Cancer is a genetic disease that results from mutations in genes that control cell activities. Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancers in men. Surgery, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, and chemotherapy are used to treat this disease. These treatments have numerous side effects after treatment, including impotence along with the high cost of treatment. In this study, lycopene was studied as a carotenoid compound synthesized in plants. Lycopene is used by plants and microorganisms to Absorb of light is made during photosynthesis. Lycopene is one of the effective antioxidants used to prevent the growth of cancerous glands. BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins are among tumor inhibitors. These two proteins are associated with various cellular processes such as DNA damage, repair, as well as with transcriptional regulation and chromatin regeneration. Defects in BRCA1 and BRCA2 function lead to defects in DNA repair. This instability in the genome is associated with a variety of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers. Materials & Methods: In this research project, In Silico method and bioinformatics tools were used to determine the effect of lycopene on the expression of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes effective in prostate cancer, and the changes in the expression of these inhibitory genes have been measured. For this study, high volume gene expression data were obtained from the NCBI database, GEO section. As the raw data were extracted previously using microarray method and published in the NCBI database, so these raw data were used in accordance with the purpose of this study. For optimal analysis of these data, using Matlab software, the expression changes of the desired genes treated with lycopene were investigated. For determination of the communication of these genes with each other and with other effective genes, Cytoscape software has been used. Results: Bioinformatics study of the effect of lycopene on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes has shown that this combination has an increasing effect on the expression of these inhibitory proteins. therefore, treatment of patients with this combination, the expression of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes has increased. Conclusion: Based on theorical analysis of microarray data, it was concluded that lycopene can be used as a preventive and even a treatment for prostate cancer in terms of its effect on BRCA1 and BRCA2 inhibitor genes.