Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Folate is a methylating agent which can reduce the aggressiveness of gliomas by remethylating genes involved in proliferation and apoptosis. Folate is a potential therapeutic treatment for cancer. It can be found naturally as Folinic Acid, or in the synthetic form Folic Acid, and can cross the blood brain barrier. Methylation is a useful target as it is an epigenetic change that can be reversed. METHOD: To begin to investigate the effect of folate on glioma, glioma cell lines U87 and 1321, plus the glial cell line SVG were used. Glioma cell lines were treated for 7 days with Folic and Folinic Acid at 4 and 40 µg/ml with and without an antioxidant. Cell viability was assessed using the PrestoBlue assay and cell cycle and apoptosis were tested using Propidium Iodide and caspase Glo 3/7 respectively. RESULTS: Cells treated with the higher level of Folinic Acid, 40 µg/ml, showed significant reduction in cell viability compared with the control (P < 0.01). Cell cycle analysis showed no difference in the percentages of each different cell cycle phase between the control and treatments on either Day 2 or Day 7. This suggests that the reduction in cell viability may be due to changes in apoptosis. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that folate has an effect on cell viability in glioma cell lines. Folate could also have a beneficial effect on gliomas, which supports the use of folate for further research on primary glioma tissue.