Complex forming competition and in-vitro toxicity studies on the applicability of di-2-pyridylketone-4,4,-dimethyl-3-thiosemicarbazone (Dp44mT) as a metal chelator.

Di-2-pyridylketone-4,4,-dimethyl-3-thiosemicarbazone (Dp44mT) is a potential candidate in chelation therapy as an iron chelator. This study showed that a combined treatment with 2µM easily available Fe(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) each and 5µM Dp44mT on eight different cancer cell lines resulted in a 10-40-fold increase in the intracellular Cu content compared to control samples. The uptake of Cu and Cu-dependent cytotoxicity strictly depend on the Cu concentration of the culture medium. Even as low concentration of Dp44mT as 0.1µM can transport high amounts of copper inside the cells. The Cu accumulation and toxicity through Dp44mT can hardly be influenced by Fe. Copper uptake and toxicity triggered by 2µM extracellular Cu(II) and 5µM Dp44mT could not be influenced by Fe(II) extracellular concentrations even 50-times higher than that of Cu(II). A 50-times higher Co(II) extracellular concentration hindered the Cu(II) uptake almost completely and a 10-times higher Co(II) concentration already decreased the Dp44mT-mediated Cu toxicity. Conditional complex stability constant determinations for Dp44mT with Cu(II), Co(II), Fe(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) revealed that the metal-to-ligand ratio is 1:1 in [Cu(II)Dp44mT] complex, while for Co(II), Fe(II) and Ni(II) is 1:2. The highest stability constant was obtained for Cu(II) (lg ß=7.08±0.05) and Co(II) (lg ß2=12.47±0.07). According to our results, Dp44mT in combination with Cu is highly toxic in vitro. Therefore, the use of Dp44mT as an iron chelator is limited if biologically available Cu is also present even at low concentrations.

Microanalytical method development for Fe, Cu and Zn determination in colorectal cancer cells.

Microanalytical methods suitable for the determination of Fe, Cu in HT-29 (human colon adenocarcinoma) cells treated with different iron compounds (Fe(II) sulfate, Fe(III) chloride, Fe(III) citrate and Fe(III) transferrin) and cultured in medium supplemented or not with 10% (v/v) fetal calf serum (FCS) by total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (TXRF) and simultaneous graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) were developed. The developed TXRF method was also suitable for Zn determination in the samples. The main advantage of the proposed methods is the execution of all sample preparation steps following incubation and prior to the elemental analysis in the same Eppendorf tubes. Sample preparation was performed at microscale (115 µL sample volume) with 65% nitric acid and 30% hydrogen peroxide. According to scanning electron microscopic measurements, the organic matrix of the cell samples could be eliminated to the extent that accurate results were obtained for Cu and Fe by analyzing the same samples by TXRF and GF-AAS. Concerning the iron uptake, HT-29 cells incubated in FCS-free medium contained Fe in cca. 5-50 times higher amounts compared to cells cultured in FCS supplemented medium. Pronounced differences in the iron uptake compared to the iron supply (inorganic vs. organic chelated as well as iron(II) vs. iron(III)) were observed in the case of cell lines incubated in FCS-free medium.