Anticancer evaluation of N-benzoyl-3-allylthiourea as potential antibreast cancer agent through enhances HER-2 expression

Breast cancer with HER-2 overexpression is sensitive to drugs which target the receptor or its kinase activity. Although the anti-HER-2 therapies commonly used have improved patient outcome, resistance usually occurs. In this present study, we investigated a modification of the chemical structure of allylthiourea derivatives in order to enhance the cytotoxicity effect on breast cancer cells with HER-2 overexpression. The aim of this research was to predict the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity by in silico study and to explore the effect N-benzoyl-3-allylthiourea (BATU) on MCF-7 cell line with overexpressing of HER-2 using MTT assay and western blot. The result showed that the cytotoxicity effects of BATU on MCF-7/HER-2 cell line (IC50 value 0.64 mM) were higher than on MCF-7 cell lines (IC50 value 1.47 mM). In addition, the cytotoxic effects of BATU on MCF-7 and MCF-7/HER-2 were higher than allylthiourea as a lead compound (IC50 value 5.22 and 3.17 mM). The results also confirmed that the BATU compound has the ability to effectively enhance its cytotoxicity against MCF-7/HER-2 through enhanced HER-2 expression and inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) activation. Above all, the BATU compound is effective in increasing HER-2 expression and inactivating NF-kB transcription factors, thereby resulting in inhibition of protein expression which works a significant part in cell proliferation. Therefore, the BATU compound has the potential to be developed as a complementary drug in breast cancer therapy with HER-2 positive.