Metformin regulates colorectal cancer cells and PD-L1 is expressed in colon cancer

Abstract

Metformin is a well-tolerated anti-diabetic drug frequently used as first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes. Previous studies have shown that metformin not only has the ability to act on cancer cells and stop their proliferation but can also improve the prognosis of certain malignancies. However, the mechanism underlying metformin’s anti-cancer effect is still unclear. This proposed project aims to investigate metformin’s apoptosis-mediated effect on the expression on CRC cells and to assess weather CRC cells are releasing metabolites when treated with different concentrations of metformin. We will also be studying if PD-L1 is expressed on CRC cells in vitro. In the present work, we discuss the proposed mechanism of metformin in modulating colorectal cancer. MTT assay was performed to examine CRC cell viability and cell-count using different concentrations of metformin at different timings. Using different metformin concentrations at different time intervals, western blot was performed HCT 116 cells in order to detected weather proteins were being released in the supernatant. No metabolites in the form of protein were revealed in our western blot. HPLC was done on HCT116 cells’ supernatant where we were able to assert the presence of metformin and that no metabolite was found in the media. Finally, Celsee genomics analysis was performed on HCT116 cells in different concentrations, where the samples revealed that there might be a PDL-1 expression in CRC.