Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
Volume 22, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22010242
Keywords
model amphipathic peptide; cell-penetrating peptides; tacrine; blood-brain barrier; MCF-7 cells; anticancer activity; SH-SY5Y cells
Funding
- FEDER-Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through the COMPETE 2020-Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI), Portugal 2020
- FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [UIDB/4255/2020, UID/DTP/04138/2013, UIDB/50006/2020, UID/BIM/04293/2019]
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [UID/BIM/04293/2019] Funding Source: FCT
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Drug repurposing and drug combination are two widely used strategies to overcome the traditional development of new anticancer drugs. The study found that coupling Tacrine with CPP enhanced its antiproliferative properties, but also resulted in a considerable loss of its function as an AChE inhibitor.
Drug repurposing and drug combination are two strategies that have been widely used to overcome the traditional development of new anticancer drugs. Several FDA-approved drugs for other indications have been tested and have demonstrated beneficial anticancer effects. In this connection, our research group recently reported that Tacrine, used to treat Alzheimer's Disease, inhibits the growth of breast cancer MCF-7 cells both alone and in combination with a reference drug. In this view, we have now coupled Tacrine with the model amphipathic cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) MAP, to ascertain whether coupling of the CPP might enhance the drug's antiproliferative properties. To this end, we synthesized MAP through solid-phase peptide synthesis, coupled it with Tacrine, and made a comparative evaluation of the parent drug, peptide, and the conjugate regarding their permeability across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), ability to inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in vitro, and antiproliferative activity on cancer cells. Both MAP and its Tacrine conjugate were highly toxic to MCF-7 and SH-SY5Y cells. In turn, BBB-permeability studies were inconclusive, and conjugation to the CPP led to a considerable loss of Tacrine function as an AChE inhibitor. Nonetheless, this work reinforces the potential of repurposing Tacrine for cancer and enhances the antiproliferative activity of this drug through its conjugation to a CPP.
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