Abstract
The treatment of glioblastoma is challenging for the clinician, due to its chemotherapeutic resistance. Recent findings suggest that targeting glioblastoma using anti-cancer natural polyphenols is a promising strategy. In this context, curcumin and berberine have been shown to have potent anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects against several malignancies. Due to the poor solubility and limited bioavailability, these compounds have limited efficacy for treating cancer. However, use of a formulation of curcumin with higher bioavailability or combining it with berberine as a co-treatment may be proving to be more efficacious against cancer. Recently, we demonstrated that solid lipid curcumin particles (SLCPs) provided more bioavailability and anti-cancer effects in cultured glioblastoma cells than did natural curcumin. Interestingly, a combination of curcumin and berberine has proven to be more effective in inhibiting growth and proliferation of cancer in the liver, breast, lung, bone and blood. However, the effect of combining these drugs for treating glioblastoma, especially with respect to its effect on activating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways has not been studied. Therefore, we decided to assess the co-treatment effects of these drugs on two different glioblastoma cell lines (U-87MG and U-251MG) and neuroblastoma cell lines (SH-SY5Y) derived from human tissue. In this study, we compared single and combination (1:5) treatment of SLCP (20 μM) and berberine (100 μM) on measures of cell viability, cell death markers, levels of c-Myc and p53, along with biomarkers of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways after 24-48 h of incubation. We found that co-treatment of SLCP and berberine produced more glioblastoma cell death, more DNA fragmentation, and significantly decreased ATP levels and reduced mitochondrial membrane potential than did single treatments in both glioblastoma cells lines. In addition, we observed that co-treatment inhibited the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway more efficiently than their single treatments. Our study suggests that combination treatments of SLCP and berberine may be a promising strategy to reduce or prevent glioblastoma growth in comparison to individual treatments using either compound.
Highlights
Glioblastoma (GB), or grade-IV astrocytoma, is one of the most aggressive and deadliest brain cancers, killing millions of people world-wide [1]
Our results suggest that the co-treatment of SLCP- or BBR-treated cells (SLCP) and BBR caused more cell death and inhibited the phosphoinositol triphosphate (PI3K)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway more efficiently than did either individual treatment
To compare the cell death caused by SLCP + BBR and their single treatment, we performed an MTT reduction assay with different doses of SLCP (5, 10, 20- and 40- μM) and BBR (50, 100, 150- and 200- μM) and their combination for 24 h
Summary
Glioblastoma (GB), or grade-IV astrocytoma, is one of the most aggressive and deadliest brain cancers, killing millions of people world-wide [1]. Current treatment strategies, including surgical removal of tumor, radiotherapy, and chemotherapies, or combinations of these therapies are unable to stop the progression of this disease In this context, temozolomide (TMZ), a DNAalkylating chemotherapeutic agent, has been used to treat GB for more than two decades. One approach involves the use of natural polyphenols, such as curcumin (Cur) and berberine (BBR), which exhibit antiproliferation and anti-cancer properties in human malignancies. Curcumin (Cur) is a yellow colored phytopolylphenol derived from the root of the herb Curcuma longa [12] It inhibits tumor growth by suppressing cellular transformation, proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis [11, 13, 14]. We and others have demonstrated that lipid-conjugation increases Cur solubility and bio-availability in cancer therapy [16, 18, 19]
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