Affinity of Alkylphosphocholines to Biological Membrane of Prostate Cancer: Studies in Natural and Model Systems

• DOI: 10.1007/s00232-014-9674-8
• Publication Date: 2014-05-21T17:31:19Z
• Authors: Anita Wnętrzak; Ewelina Lipiec; Kazimierz Łątka; Wojciech Kwiatek; Patrycja Dynarowi...
• Keywords: Male; 0303 health sciences; Physiology; Phosphorylcholine; Cell Membrane; Biophysics; Prostatic Neoplasms; Antineoplastic Agents; Apoptosis; alkylphosphocholines; Cell Biology; prostate cancer; Models, Biological; Article; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; Cell Line, Tumor; Humans; model membrane; Langmuir monolayers

The effectiveness of two alkylphosphocholines (APCs), hexadecylphosphocholine (miltefosine) and erucylphosphocholine to combat prostate cancer has been studied in vitro with artificial cancerous membrane, modelled with the Langmuir monolayer technique, and on cell line (Du-145). Studies performed with the Langmuir method indicate that both the investigated drugs have the affinity to the monolayer mimicking prostate cancer membrane (composed of cholesterol:POPC = 0.428) and the drug-membrane interactions are stronger for erucylphosphocholine as compared to hexadecylphosphocholine. Moreover, both studied drugs were found to fluidize the model membrane, which may lead to apoptosis. Indeed, biological studies confirmed that in Du-145 cell line both investigated alkylphosphocholines cause cell death primarily by apoptosis while necrotic cells constitute only a small percentage of APC-treated cells.