Recently, the study of autophagy and its mechanism on the cancer cell growth process has received much attention. lactoferrin (Lf) is a glycoprotein with various biological activities, including antibacterial, antiviral, anti-cancer, etc. In the present study, the effect of different concentrations of lactoferrin on the expression of ULK1 and ATG13 genes was evaluated in breast cancer cell line MCF7 using real-time PCR technique as well as the molecular mechanism of these two genes and their proteins in the autophagy pathway and the relationship between lactoferrin and these proteins were investigated by bioinformatics studies. The result showed that the expression of the ULK1 gene at a concentration of 500 μg/ml of lactoferrin was significantly (P < 0.007) increased compared to the control and two other concentrations. Also, the expression of the ATG13 gene at all three concentrations was not significantly different from each other and compared to the control (P = 0.635). In the immunoblot of ULK1 protein at a concentration of 500 µg, more protein expression was observed. The binding mode of lactoferrin with ULK1, ATG13, and ATG101 proteins was obtained using docking. According to docking results, the N-lobe region of lactoferrin interacts with the PS domain of the ULK1 protein, and the N-lobe region of lactoferrin interacts with the horma domain of the ATG 13 and ATG101 proteins. The results show that lactoferrin, in addition to acting on the gene, interacts with ULK1, ATG13, and ATG101 proteins. Since all three proteins are components of the autophagy initiation complex, lactoferrin can induce autophagy in this way.

近年来，自噬及其在癌细胞生长过程中的作用机制的研究备受关注。乳铁蛋白（Lf）是一种糖蛋白，具有多种生物活性，包括抗菌、抗病毒、抗癌等。本研究评估了不同浓度的乳铁蛋白对乳腺癌细胞系中ULK1和ATG13基因表达的影响。利用实时荧光定量PCR技术对MCF7以及这两个基因及其蛋白在自噬途径中的分子机制以及乳铁蛋白与这些蛋白之间的关系进行了生物信息学研究。结果表明，在500 μg/ml乳铁蛋白浓度下，ULK1基因表达显着（P < 0.007) 与对照和其他两个浓度相比增加。此外，所有三种浓度的 ATG13 基因的表达彼此之间没有显着差异，并且与对照相比（P = 0.635）。在 500 µg 浓度的 ULK1 蛋白的免疫印迹中，观察到更多的蛋白表达。使用对接获得乳铁蛋白与ULK1、ATG13和ATG101蛋白的结合模式。对接结果显示，乳铁蛋白的N-叶区与ULK1蛋白的PS结构域相互作用，乳铁蛋白的N-叶区与ATG 13和ATG101蛋白的horma结构域相互作用。结果表明，乳铁蛋白除了作用于该基因外，还与ULK1、ATG13和ATG101蛋白相互作用。由于所有三种蛋白质都是自噬起始复合物的组成部分，因此乳铁蛋白可以通过这种方式诱导自噬。