Abstract
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are very common in certain population around the world. Despite the recent advances in their diagnosis and therapy, their prognosis remains poor due to the development resistance to drug. Although doxorubicin (DOX) is considered to be one of the most anti-solid tumor drugs, developed resistance is contributing to unsuccessful outcome. The rationale of the current study is to explore the sensitizing capability of the DOX-treated cancer cells using the anticancer agents; bevacizumab (avastin; AV) and CCR2 inhibitor (CR) in their free- and nano-formulations. Here, the average size, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential, and entrpment effeciency (EE%) of the synthesized nanoparticles were measured. We investigated the effect of these platforms on the proliferation, apoptosis, necrosis, nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), and zinc levels of human HCC (HepG2 and Huh-7) and NSCLC (A549) cancer cell lines. Glucose consumption rates using Huh-7 and A549 cancer cells were tested upon treatments. We demonstrated that AV and CR nano-treatments significantly suppressed A549 cell viability and activated apoptosis by NO level elevation. We concluded that AVCR NP plus DOX significantly induces A549 cytotoxicity-mediated apoptosis more than Huh-7 and HepG2 cells. This drug-drug nano-combination induced Huh-7 cytotoxicity-mediated apoptosis more than HepG2 cells. In conclusion, AVCR NP sensitized DOX-treated A549 and Huh-7 cells through reactive oxygen species (ROS)-stimulated apoptosis. Taken together, our data suggested that the CR plus AV nano-platforms would be a potential personalized medicine-based strategy for treating CCR2-positive NSCLC and HCC patients in the near future.