Taxol-induced alteration of intracellular amino-acid profile related to human cervical carcinoma HeLa cell death

• Published in: Biotechnology letters Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Han, Xiao-Fei, Liu, Yan-Qiu, Wang, Long-Xing, Yang, Qian-Xu, Xiao, Hong-Bin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alanine; Alterations; Amino acids; Amino Acids - analysis; Antineoplastic Agents - metabolism; Apoptosis; Applied Microbiology; Biochemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Cell Death; Cell Survival - drug effects; Cells; Cervical cancer; Culture Media - chemistry; Culture Media, Conditioned - chemistry; Epithelial Cells - chemistry; Epithelial Cells - drug effects; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; HeLa Cells; Humans; Life Sciences; Lysine; Metabolism; Methionine; Microbiology; Original Research Paper; Paclitaxel - metabolism; Taxol; Tumors; Human cervical carcinoma HeLa cell; Alanine; Intracellular amino-acid profile; Taxol; Human; Cell death; Aminoacid; L-Alanine; Cervix carcinoma; Intracellular; Hela cell line; Tumor cell
• ISSN: 0141-5492; 1573-6776
• DOI: 10.1007/s10529-011-0730-5

The anti-tumor action of Taxol was investigated in the changes of amino-acids involved in tumor cell survival. By tracing the intracellular amino-acid profiles of HeLa cells treated with non-conditioned and three conditioned media (Taxol, l -alanine, and Taxol +  l -alanine), it was observed that an alteration of amino-acid metabolism participates in Taxol-induced death of HeLa cells. The contents of 18 out of 21 detected amino-acids are 5–95% and the ones of lysine and methionine are 158 and 117% of the corresponding contents in the control after treatment with Taxol for 24 h, respectively. Addition of l -alanine inhibited cell apoptosis upon Taxol treatment by partially blocking the increase of lysine and methionine and reversing decrease trend of alanine, glycine, and glutamic acid. These results suggest that interference of amino-acid metabolism might be an important mechanism of Taxol cytotoxicity.