Mitogenic effects of phosphatidylcholine nanoparticles on MCF-7 breast cancer cells

GÁNDOLA YB; PÉREZ SE; IRENE PE; SOTELO AI; MIQUET JG; CORRADI GR; CARLUCCI AM; GONZÁLEZ L

BioMed Research International

Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Año: 2014

2314-6133

Lecithins, mainly composed of the phospholipids phosphatidylcholines (PC), have many diferent uses in the pharmaceutical and clinical ield. PC are involved in structural and biological functions as membrane traicking processes and cellular signaling.Considering the increasing applications of lecithin-based nanosystems for the delivery of therapeutic agents, the aimof the present work was to determine the efects of phosphatidylcholine nanoparticles over breast cancer cellular proliferation and signaling. PCdispersions at 0.01 and 0.1% (w/v) prepared in bufer pH 7.0 and 5.0 were studied in theMCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Neutral 0.1% PC-derived nanoparticles induced the activation of the MEK-ERK1/2 pathway, increased cell viability and induced a 1.2 fold raisein proliferation. hese biological efects correlated with the increase of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) content and its altered cellular localization. Results suggest that nanoparticles derived from PC dispersion prepared in bufer pH 7.0 may inducephysicochemical changes in the plasma membrane of cancer cells which may afect EGFR cellular localization and/or activity, increasing activation of theMEK-ERK1/2 pathway and inducing proliferation. Results from the present study suggest that possible biological efects of delivery systems based on lecithin nanoparticles should be taken into account in pharmaceutical formulation design.