Exploring the Anticancer and Antioxidant Potential Effects of Sitagliptin: An In Vitro Study on Lung Cancer Cell Lines

lung cancer possesses the most significant worldwide mortality rate among all types of tumors, and the majority of current treatments exhibit a broad spectrum of adverse reactions. This requires investigating novel drugs that can inhibit the growth of cancer cells while minimizing harm to normal cells. Recent studies have demonstrated that Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inhibitors can effectively suppress the growth of cancer cells in several types of malignancies, including colorectal, prostate, and kidney cancers. Hence, this study evaluated the effectiveness of sitagliptin in suppressing the proliferation of lung carcinoma cells (A549) alone as well as in conjunction with cisplatin. A549 cells were divided into four groups: control (untreated cells), cells treated with cisplatin, cells treated with sitagliptin, and cells treated with cisplatin plus sitagliptin combination (ratio 1:1). After incubation for 72 hours, a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) test was utilized to evaluate cell viability percent and concentration of 50% inhibition for cell viability (IC50) for each group. Then, A549 cells were cultured into four flasks and exposed to the IC50 concentration. The resulting cell pellets were gathered and subjected to lysis to assess the malondialdehyde (MDA) level using ELISA kits. The vitality of A549 cells was significantly reduced by Sitagliptin therapy compared to the control (P < 0.0001). When the combination of sitagliptin and cisplatin was administered, it exhibited markedly superior anticancer effectiveness compared to their usage alone. Significantly, sitagliptin reduced MDA levels, whether used individually or in combination with cisplatin. As a result, sitagliptin exhibited significantly anticancer and antioxidant properties against A549 cells. This suggests a possible synergistic anticancer effect with cisplatin.