Synergistic effects of quercetin-loaded CoFe2O4@Liposomes regulate DNA damage and apoptosis in MCF-7 cancer cells: based on biophysical magnetic hyperthermia.

INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy in women globally. Significant progress has been made in developing structural nanoparticles (NPs) and formulations for targeted smart drug delivery (SDD) of pharmaceuticals, improving the precision of tumor cell targeting in therapy. SIGNIFICANCE: Magnetic hyperthermia (MHT) treatment using magneto-liposomes (MLs) has emerged as a promising adjuvant cancer therapy. METHODS: CoFe2O4 magnetic NPs (MNPs) were conjugated with nanoliposomes to form MLs, and the anticancer drug quercetin (Que) was loaded into MLs, forming Que-MLs composites for antitumor approach. The aim was to prepare Que-MLs for DD systems (DDS) under an alternating magnetic field (AMF), termed chemotherapy/hyperthermia (chemo-HT) techniques. The encapsulation efficiency (EE), drug loading capacity (DL), and drug release (DR) of Que and Que-MLs were evaluated. RESULTS: The results confirmed successful Que-loading on the surface of MLs, with an average diameter of 38 nm and efficient encapsulation into MLs (69%). In vitro, experimental results on MCF-7 breast cells using MHT showed high cytotoxic effects of novel Que-MLs on MCF-7 cells. Various analyses, including cytotoxicity, apoptosis, cell migration, western blotting, fluorescence imaging, and cell membrane internalization, were conducted. The Acridine Orange-ethidium bromide double fluorescence test identified 35% early and 55% late apoptosis resulting from Que-MLs under the chemo-HT group. TEM results indicated MCF-7 cell membrane internalization and digestion of Que-MLs, suggesting the presence of early endosome-like vesicles on the cytoplasmic periphery. CONCLUSIONS: Que-MLs exhibited multi-modal chemo-HT effects, displaying high toxicity against MCF-7 BC cells and showing promise as a potent cytotoxic agent for BC chemotherapy.

Production of kojic acid by Aspergillus flavus OL314748 using box-Behnken statistical design and its antibacterial and anticancer applications using molecular docking technique.

Kojic acid is a wonderful fungal secondary metabolite that has several applications in the food, medical, and agriculture sectors. Many human diseases become resistant to normal antibiotics and normal treatments. We need to search for alternative treatment sources and understand their mode of action. Aspergillus flavus ASU45 (OL314748) was isolated from the caraway rhizosphere as a non-aflatoxin producer and identified genetically using 18S rRNA gene sequencing. After applying the Box-Behnken statistical design to maximize KA production, the production raised from 39.96 to 81.59 g/l utilizing (g/l) glucose 150, yeast extract 5, KH2PO4 1, MgSO4.7H2O 2, and medium pH 3 with a coefficient (R2) of 98.45%. Extracted KA was characterized using FTIR, XRD, and a scanning electron microscope. Crystalized KA was an effective antibacterial agent against six human pathogenic bacteria (Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Serratia marcescens, and Serratia plymuthica). KA achieves high inhibition activity against Bacillus cereus, K. pneumonia, and S. plymuthica at 100 µg/ml concentration by 2.75, 2.85, and 2.85 compared with chloramphenicol which gives inhibition zones 1, 1.1, and 1.6, respectively. Crystalized KA had anticancer activity versus three types of cancer cell lines (Mcf-7, HepG2, and Huh7) and demonstrated high cytotoxic capabilities on HepG-2 cells that propose strong antitumor potent of KA versus hepatocellular carcinoma. The antibacterial and anticancer modes of action were illustrated using the molecular docking technique. Crystalized kojic acid from a biological source represented a promising microbial metabolite that could be utilized as an alternative antibacterial and anticancer agent effectively.

Acceleration of slow autophagy flux induced by arabinofuranosyl cytidine improves its antileukemic effectiveness in M-NFS-60 cells.

Arabinofuranosyl cytidine (AraC) is an analog of deoxycytidine used as an anticancer drug for leukemic patients. The effective dose always produces severe complications. The present study investigated the modulation of autophagy and its impact on the cytotoxicity of AraC toward murine myelogenous leukemia cells (M-NFS-60). Autophagy was inhibited by NH4Cl or Bafilomycin A1 or enhanced by amino acid starvation, glucose starvation, mild hyperthermia (41 °C), or rapamycin (Rap). Cells were treated with different concentrations, 0 to 2 µM, of AraC in the presence or absence of autophagy modulators. AraC-induced apoptosis is combined with autophagy, especially at lower concentrations. This autophagy is characterized by a slow flux, as indicated by levels of LC3B II and P62 proteins. Inhibition of autophagy did not alter cleaved caspase 3 levels (c-casp.3) or cell viability measured by MTT assays. Conversely, acceleration of AraC-induced autophagy by co-treatment with autophagy inducers reduced cell viability and increased c-casp.3 and c-PARP levels. Further, c-PARP levels were reduced in the presence of caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK. Enhancement of slow autophagic flux induced by low concentrations of AraC significantly increased the cytotoxicity of AraC toward M-NFS-60 cells. Such coadministration of autophagy inducers might improve the efficacy of AraC treatment and reduce effective doses.

Ceramide generation during curcumin-induced apoptosis is controlled by crosstalk among Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, caspases and glutathione.

Curcumin exhibits anti-cancer properties manifested by activation of pro-apoptotic signaling. We have demonstrated earlier that apoptosis of HL-60 human leukemia cells induced by curcumin is controlled by ceramide generated by neutral sphingomyelinase (nSMase) which contributes to sphingomyelin synthase (SMS) inhibition favoring accumulation of ceramide in cells. Here we report that the activity of nSMase, ceramide accumulation and death of HL-60 cells are inhibited by overexpression of Bcl-xL or Bcl-2 proteins, while down-regulation of nSMase interferes with degradation of Bcl-2 but not Bcl-xL. Activation of nSMase in curcumin-treated cells requires the activity of apoptosis initiator caspase-8 and executioner caspase-3, whereas nSMase depletion prevents activation of caspase-3, but not caspase-8. These data place nSMase activation downstream of caspase-8 and Bcl-xL and indicate a mutual regulation between nSMase and caspase-3 activity on one hand, and Bcl-2 level on the other hand in curcumin-treated cells. The activation of nSMase and ceramide accumulation also depended on the depletion of glutathione. The depletion of glutathione required the activity of caspase-8 and caspase-3 as well as the down-regulation of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL. Together, the data indicate a crosstalk among Bcl-2, Bc-xL, caspases and glutathione during curcumin-induced apoptosis and point to the superior role of caspase-8 activity, Bcl-xL down-regulation and glutathione depletion in the pro-apoptotic cascade leading to nSMase activation and generation of ceramide.

DJ-1 Protects Breast Cancer Cells Against 2'-Benzoyloxycinnamaldehyde-induced Oxidative Stress Independent of Nrf2.

2'-Benzoyloxycinnamaldehyde (BCA) is a promising antitumor agent. BCA effectively inhibited proliferation of MDA-MB-435 more than in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Our recent findings showed that DJ-1 protects MCF7 cells from BCA-induced oxidative stress via its mitochondrial translocation and inhibition of the mitochondrial perturbation (Ismail et al., 2012). In this study, we addressed the question of whether Nrf2 works downstream to DJ-1 in mediating differential antiproliferation effects in MCF-7 and MDAMB-435 breast cancer cells induced by BCA treatment. BCA upregulated the expression and induced nuclear translocalization of DJ-1 and Nrf2 in only MCF-7 cells. However, in MDA-MB-435, BCA increased only Nrf2 expression without inducing DJ-1 and/or Nrf2 protein translocalization to the nucleus. Furthermore, DJ-1 knockdown decreased DJ-1 expression in both cells without affecting Nrf2 and its downstream target γ-GCS, suggesting that DJ-1-induced cell protection and works independent of Nrf2 signaling pathway.