Effects of tea catechin extracts from BB35 and purple (TRFK 306) tea clones on the gene expression of Egfr, App, Bcl2, Dnmt, Casp3, Hif1a, Gadd45b and Psmb5 genes involved in triple negative breast cancer diseases: In silico and in vitro study

Tea has been shown to contain metabolites that exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer and anti-cardio vascular diseases properties. This study aimed to carry out an in silico assessment of catechins on the genes previously shown to be involved in Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) disease and also to evaluate the effects of catechin extracts from purple (TRFK306) and BB35 tea clones on the expression patterns of genes in the 4T1 TNBC cell line as mentioned above. Identification and quantification of different catechin contents in these two tea clones were performed by using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). In silico assessment including Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion (ADME) study for drug-likeness evaluation, Drug target prediction, Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis and construction, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment and analysis for targets and Molecular docking study was conducted. Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System (SMILES) of 4 different tea catechins showed a target on 111 genes in TNBC and have high binding affinity to the receptor-binding pocket of chain A of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) Extracellular Domains. Catechin extracts promoted the downregulation of expression of 6 genes (Egfr, App, Bcl2, Dnmt, Hif1a and Psmb5) and the upregulation of 2 genes (Casp3 and Gadd45b) in the 4T1 TNBC cell line. Catechin extracts from purple tea clones showed higher activity on gene expression levels of Egfr, Bcl2 and Casp3 than catechin extracts from BB35 tea clone.