Cytotoxicity of selenocyanobiotin against MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells

Date

2008-12

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Abstract

Numerous selenium compounds have demonstrated their ability to act as a chemotherapeutic agent through their pro-oxidative activity in cancer therapy in vitro. However, one major problem in cancer therapy is tumor drug specificity. Previous studies have shown that the membrane bound folate receptors (FR) and biotin receptors (BR) are over expressed in numerous cancer cells but not in normal cells. The present study was aimed to determine whether a selenium-biotin conjugate can be internalized via a BR-overexpressing human breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231. It was observed that MDA-MB-231 cells treated with 1, 5, 10, and 20 µM of selenocyanobiotin (SeCN-biotin) after 24-, 72-, and 120-hour treatment resulted in inhibition of cell proliferation and cell death as determined by the [methyl-tritium] DNA thymidine incorporation assay. The experimental results provide support for the hypothesis that SeCN-biotin could penetrate into BR-over-expressing cancer cells and inhibit DNA synthesis in a time- and dose-dependent manner in vitro.


This thesis won 2nd Place in the Texas Tech University Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Award, Biological Life Sciences, 2009.

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Keywords

Cytotoxicity, Selenium, Biotin receptor, Breast cancer

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