Anticancer activity of gomisin J from Schisandra chinensis fruit.

In attempting to identify effective anticancer drugs from natural products that are harmless to humans, we found that the gomisin J from Schisandra chinensis fruit has anticancer activity. Schisandra chinensis fruits are used in traditional herbal medicine and gomisin J is one of their chemical constituents. In the present study, we examined the anticancer activity of gomisin J in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines and in MCF10A normal cell line, in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Our data revealed that gomisin J exerted a much stronger cytotoxic effect on MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cells than on MCF10A normal cells. Gomisin J suppressed the proliferation and decreased the viability of MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells at relatively low (<10 µg/ml) and high (>30 µg/ml) concentrations, respectively. Our data also revealed that gomisin J induced necroptosis, a programmed form of necrosis, as well as apoptosis. Notably, gomisin J predominantly induced necroptosis in MCF7 cells that are known to have high resistance to many pro-apoptotic anticancer drugs, while MDA-MB-231 exhibited a much lower level of necroptosis but instead a higher level of apoptosis. This data indicated the possibility that it may be used as a more effective anticancer drug, especially in apoptosis-resistant malignant cancer cells. In an extended study, gomisin J exhibited a strong cytotoxic effect on all tested various types of 13 cancer cell lines, indicating its potential to be used against a wide range of different types of cancer cells.

Hyaluronic acid conjugated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle for cancer diagnosis and hyperthermia therapy.

Recently, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have been prepared for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and hyperthermia therapy. Here, we have developed hyaluronic acid (HA) coated SPIONs primarily for use in a hyperthermia application with an MR diagnostic feature with hydrodynamic size measurement of 176nm for HA-PEG10-SPIONs and 149nm for HA-SPIONs. HA-coated SPIONs (HA-SPIONs) were prepared to target CD44-expressed cancer where the carrier was conjugated to PEG for analyzing longer circulation in blood as well as for biocompatibility (HA-PEG10 SPIONs). Characterization was conducted with TEM (shape), DLS (size), ELS (surface charge), TGA (content of polymer) and MRI (T2-relaxation time). The heating ability of both the HA-SPIONs and HA-PEG10-SPIONs was studied by AMF and SAR calculation. Cellular level tests were conducted using SCC7 and NIH3T3 cell lines to confirm cell viability and cell specific uptake. HA-SPIONs and HA-PEG10-SPIONs were injected to xenograft mice bearing the SCC7 cell line for MRI cancer diagnosis. We found that HA-SPION-injected mice tumors showed nearly 40% MR T2 contrast compared to the 20% MR T2 contrast of the HA-PEG10-SPION group over a 3h time period. Finally, in vitro hyperthermia studies were conducted in the SCC7 cell line that showed less than 40% cell viability for both HA-SPIONs and HA-PEG10-SPIONs in AMF treated cells. In conclusion, HA-SPIONs were targeted specifically to the CD44, and the hyperthermia effect of HA-SPIONs and HA-PEG10-SPIONs was found to be significant for future studies.