Docosahexaenoic Acid, a Key Compound for Enhancing Sensitization to Drug in Doxorubicin-Resistant MCF-7 Cell Line

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 15; no. 7; p. 1658
• Main Authors: Crovella, Sergio, Ouhtit, Allal, Rahman, Shaikh Mizanoor, Rahman, Md Mizanur
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 29.03.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Apoptosis; Biocompatibility; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - metabolism; Cancer therapies; Care and treatment; Caspase-3; Cell cycle; Cell death; Cell growth; Cell Line, Tumor; chemoresistance; Chemosensitization; Chemotherapy; Clinical trials; Cytotoxicity; Dietary supplements; Docosahexaenoic acid; Docosahexaenoic Acids - pharmacology; Docosahexaenoic Acids - therapeutic use; Doxorubicin; Doxorubicin - therapeutic use; drug accumulation; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; Drug sensitization; Drugs; Estrogens; Female; Flow cytometry; Gene expression; Health aspects; Humans; Lipid peroxidation; Lipids; Marine fish; MCF-7 Cells; Metastasis; Methods; Mortality; natural bioactive compound; Omega-3 fatty acids; P-Glycoprotein; Peroxidation; Physiological aspects; Prevention; Survival factor; Tumors; Qatar; United States > US; drug accumulation; chemoresistance; docosahexaenoic acid; natural bioactive compound; apoptosis; breast cancer; chemosensitization
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu15071658

Drug resistance is a well-known and significant obstacle in the battle against cancer, rendering chemotherapy treatments often ineffective. To improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy, researchers are exploring the use of natural molecules that can enhance its ability to kill cancer cells and limit their spread. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a lipid found in marine fish, has been shown to enhance the cytotoxicity of various anti-cancer drugs in vitro and in vivo. While the combined use of chemotherapeutic drugs with DHA demonstrated promising preliminary results in clinical trials, there is still a significant amount of information to be discovered regarding the precise mechanism of action of DHA. As the biological pathways involved in the chemosensitization of already chemoresistant MCF-7 cells are still not entirely unraveled, in this study, we aimed to investigate whether DHA co-treatment could enhance the ability of the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin to inhibit the growth and invasion of MCF-7 breast cancer cells (MCF-7/Dox) that had become resistant to the drug. Upon treating MCF-7/Dox cells with DHA or DHA-doxorubicin, it was observed that the DHA-doxorubicin combination effectively enhanced cancer cell death by impeding in vitro propagation and invasive ability. In addition, it led to an increase in doxorubicin accumulation and triggered apoptosis by arresting the cell cycle at the G2/M phase. Other observed effects included a decrease in the multi-drug resistance (MDR) carrier P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and TG2, a tumor survival factor. Augmented quantities of molecules promoting apoptosis such as Bak1 and caspase-3 and enhanced lipid peroxidation were also detected. Our findings in the cell model suggest that DHA can be further investigated as a natural compound to be used alongside doxorubicin in the treatment of breast cancer that is unresponsive to chemotherapy.