Cdna Microarray Analysis in Thymoquinone Treated Breast Cancer Cells : A Summary of Methodology and Result Interpretation

Worldwide incidence of breast cancer is increasing in parallel to the growth rate of population. In recent years there have been many efforts on exploring prevention and treatment ways for breast cancer to rescue and increase survival years in women life. Thymoquinone derived from Nigella Sativa plant is known as an anti-neoplastic agent with an increasing literature on its medicinal properties over the years. Based on the previous studies, the postulated mechanism of Thymoquinone action involves multiple pathways which play significant roles in cancer progression. Array-based gene expression analysis is a powerful tool to profile expression of genes and signalling pathways to generate information about therapeutic effects of anti-cancer compounds. Due to this reason this book summarizes methodology and the way of result interpretation in cDNA microarray-based gene expression analysis by giving an example of breast cancer cells treated with Thymoquinone compound.