Antifungal imidazole: Potential new antineoplastic agent-cytotoxic effects on non-small cell lung cancer cell lines (A549).

e21037 Background: There are many drugs that can be applied to the treatment of lung cancer. These therapeutics include classical chemotherapeutics, targeted drugs against driver mutations, and immunotherapeutics. However, still, new agents are required to better results and patients outcomes. Recently, imidazole and its compounds, a type of antifungal drugs, were found to have antitumor efficacy in several cancer types. Its effects on non-small-cell lung cancer cells are yet known. This study aimed to detect anti-cancer properties of imidazole on non-small-cell lung cancer cells and suitability for clinical usage as an anti-cancer agent. Methods: We used A549 cell lines that are non-small-cell lung cancer cells in this study. A549 cells were treated with imidazole (molecular grade) at 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80 mM doses for 24, 48 and 72 hours. Cytotoxicity and IC50 values (the half-maximal inhibitory concentration) were calculated using MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) analysis. Colony formation assay was performed to detect the effect of imidazole on cancer cell colony formation ability. The cellular morphological alterations were observed on bright-field microscopy using Giemsa staining. Cellular migration status of A549 cells was defined with in vitro scratch assay up to 48th hour. Results: Cytotoxicity assay results showed that low-level imidazole induced cell proliferation. However, high-level imidazole treatment decreased the cell viability of A549 cells in a dose and time-dependent manner. The IC50 value was calculated as 60 mM, 28 mM, and 15,9 µM doses respectively at 24, 48, 72 hours in A549 cells. Also, we determined that the number of colonies (number of colonies: 42.7 ± 3.06) formed in A549 cell lines treated with imidazole at IC50 dose was statistically less than the colony number of the control group (number of colonies: 70.7 ± 5.13) (p < 0.01). Interestingly, we observed that colony number increased at a low dose (at 5 mM) imidazole treated group, statistically significant (p < 0.05). Cellular morphology was not affected at low doses; however, at the IC50 dose, A549 cells changed their cellular morphology, lost cell-cell contact, decreased cytoplasmic volume, and differentiated from parental morphology. In addition to these effects, we observed that imidazole treated cells decreased their migration capabilities compared with control group cells (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our results have shown that antifungal imidazole treatment inhibits cancer cell biological responses such as proliferation, colony formation ability, and motility in non-small lung cancer cell lines in a dose and time-dependent manner. These results suggest that imidazole would be the right candidate for the synergy with other therapeutic options such as immunotherapy. This introductory study allows us further studies exploring the synergy and its mechanism.

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Encapsulation of Nedaplatin in Novel PEGylated Liposomes Increases Its Cytotoxicity and Genotoxicity against A549 and U2OS Human Cancer Cells

Pharmaceutics ◽

10.3390/pharmaceutics12090863 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 863 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Salma El-Shafie ◽

Sherif Ashraf Fahmy ◽

Laila Ziko ◽

Nada Elzahed ◽

Tamer Shoeib ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lung Cancer ◽

Dna Damage ◽

Small Cell Lung Cancer ◽

Cancer Cells ◽

Cell Line ◽

Cell Lines ◽

Cancer Cell ◽

Cell Lung Cancer ◽

Small Cell ◽

Small Cell Lung

Following the discovery of cisplatin over 50 years ago, platinum-based drugs have been a widely used and effective form of cancer therapy, primarily causing cell death by inducing DNA damage and triggering apoptosis. However, the dose-limiting toxicity of these drugs has led to the development of second and third generation platinum-based drugs that maintain the cytotoxicity of cisplatin but have a more acceptable side-effect profile. In addition to the creation of new analogs, tumor delivery systems such as liposome encapsulated platinum drugs have been developed and are currently in clinical trials. In this study, we have created the first PEGylated liposomal form of nedaplatin using thin film hydration. Nedaplatin, the main focus of this study, has been exclusively used in Japan for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck, esophageal, bladder, ovarian and cervical cancer. Here, we investigate the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of free and liposomal nedaplatin on the human non-small cell lung cancer cell line A549 and human osteosarcoma cell line U2OS. We use a variety of assays including ICP MS and the highly sensitive histone H2AX assay to assess drug internalization and to quantify DNA damage induction. Strikingly, we show that by encapsulating nedaplatin in PEGylated liposomes, the platinum uptake cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of nedaplatin was significantly enhanced in both cancer cell lines. Moreover, the enhanced platinum uptake as well as the cytotoxic/antiproliferative effect of liposomal nedaplatin appears to be selective to cancer cells as it was not observed on two noncancer cell lines. This is the first study to develop PEGylated liposomal nedaplatin and to demonstrate the superior cell delivery potential of this product.

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