Badr-Eldin Shaimaa M, Alhakamy Nabil A, Fahmy Usama A, Ahmed Osama A A, Asfour Hani Z, Althagafi Abdulhamid A, Aldawsari Hibah M, Rizg Waleed Y, Mahdi Wael A, Alghaith Adel F, Alshehri Sultan, Caraci Filippo, Caruso Giuseppe
Department of Pharmaceutics, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Front Pharmacol. 2021 Feb 3;11:642171. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.642171. eCollection 2020.
Fluvastatin (FLV) is a hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor often used to lower total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and for the prevention of adverse cardiovascular events. This drug as well as melittin (MEL), the major component of honeybee venom (), has shown antineoplastic activity, then representing promising approaches for cancer therapy. However, adverse effects related to the use of FLV and MEL have been reported and very few studies have been carried out to obtain an optimized formulation allowing for combining the two drugs and then maximizing the anticancer activity, then minimizing the needed dosage. In the present study, an optimized formulation in terms of minimized particle size and maximized zeta potential was investigated for its cytotoxic potential in human OVCAR3 ovarian cancer cells. FLV-MEL nano-conjugates, containing a sub-toxic concentration of drug, demonstrated an improved cytotoxic potential (IC50 = 2.5 µM), about 18-fold lower, compared to the free drug (IC50 = 45.7 µM). Cell cycle analysis studies demonstrated the significant inhibition of the OVCAR3 cells proliferation exerted by FLV-MEL nano-conjugates compared to all the other treatments, with a higher percentage of cells accumulating on G2/M and pre-G1 phases, paralleled by lower percentage of cells in G0/G1 and S phases. The synergistic antineoplastic activity of FLV and MEL combined in the optimized formula was also showed by the marked pronecrotic and pro-apoptotic activities, the latter mediated by the modulation of BAX/BCL-2 ratio in favor of BAX. Our optimized FLV-MEL formulation might therefore represents a novel path for the development of specific and more effective antineoplastic drugs directed against ovarian cancer.
氟伐他汀(FLV)是一种羟甲基戊二酰辅酶A(HMG-CoA)还原酶抑制剂,常用于降低总胆固醇和低密度脂蛋白(LDL)胆固醇,并预防不良心血管事件。这种药物以及蜂毒的主要成分蜂毒素(MEL)已显示出抗肿瘤活性,因此是癌症治疗的有前景的方法。然而,与使用FLV和MEL相关的不良反应已有报道,并且很少有研究致力于获得一种优化的制剂,以便将这两种药物联合使用,从而最大化抗癌活性,同时最小化所需剂量。在本研究中,研究了一种在最小粒径和最大zeta电位方面优化的制剂对人OVCAR3卵巢癌细胞的细胞毒性潜力。含有亚毒性浓度药物的FLV-MEL纳米缀合物表现出改善的细胞毒性潜力(IC50 = 2.5 μM),与游离药物(IC50 = 45.7 μM)相比低约18倍。细胞周期分析研究表明,与所有其他处理相比,FLV-MEL纳米缀合物对OVCAR3细胞增殖有显著抑制作用,更多细胞积聚在G2/M期和G1期之前,同时G0/G1期和S期细胞百分比降低。优化配方中联合的FLV和MEL的协同抗肿瘤活性还表现为明显的促坏死和促凋亡活性,后者由BAX/BCL-2比值的调节介导,有利于BAX。因此,我们优化的FLV-MEL制剂可能代表了开发针对卵巢癌的特异性和更有效抗肿瘤药物的新途径。