Ovarian cancer is among the most lethal gynecological malignancies, primarily due to its late-stage diagnosis. Standard treatments include surgical tumor removal followed by chemotherapy. Paclitaxel is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent; however, emerging evidence suggests that it may activate the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, potentially leading to drug resistance. This study investigates the effect of rapamycin, an inhibitor of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, on enhancing the efficacy of paclitaxel in human ovarian cancer cell lines SKOV-3 and A2780s.

Materials and Methods

SKOV-3 and A2780s cell lines were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 10% BSA, 100 µg/ml streptomycin, and 100 U/ml penicillin, maintained at 37 °C in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO₂. Cytotoxic effects were assessed using the MTT assay, while the type of cell death was evaluated via flow cytometry.

Results

MTT and flow cytometry analyses revealed that both paclitaxel and rapamycin individually reduced cell viability and induced cell death in both cell lines. Notably, the combination of paclitaxel and rapamycin resulted in enhanced cytotoxicity, allowing a lower concentration of paclitaxel to achieve 50% cell death.

Conclusion

Rapamycin increases the sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells to paclitaxel, suggesting that combination therapy may serve as a promising strategy for improving treatment outcomes in ovarian cancer.