An Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spin labeling study in HT-29 Colon adenocarcinoma cells after Hypericin-mediated photodynamic therapy

Abstract

Background Colon cancer affects 1.23 million people worldwide and is the third most common malignant disease in men and the second in women. The only curative treatment is surgical resection, but a significant number of patients develop local recurrence or distant metastases. One of the alternative treatment methods for colon cancer is photodynamic therapy (PDT). In recent years, hypericin (HYP) derived from Hypericum perforatum has been suggested as a strong candidate photosensitizer for PDT. Our interest is focused on the biophysical changes in colon cancer cells in relation to HYP-mediated PDT. Results In this study, HYP-mediated PDT at 0.04, 0.08 or 0.15 μM HYP concentrations was performed in HT-29 colon adenocarcinoma cells and the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectra of the spin labeled cells were obtained. Plasma membranes are already heterogeneous structures; the presence of cancer cells increased the heterogeneity and also fluidity of the plasma membranes. Therefore, the obtained spectra were evaluated by EPRSIMC program, which provides the calculation of heterogeneous structures up to four spectral components with different fluidity characteristics. Generally, two motional patterns were obtained from calculations and the number of them increased at the highest concentration. As the order parameters of the most populated components compared, an increase was observed depending on the HYP concentration. However, because of the heterogeneous structure of membrane, the order parameters of the less populated components did not exhibit a regular distribution. Conclusion After HYP-mediated PDT, concentration dependent changes were observed in the domain parameters indicating an increase in the HYP accumulation.

The Influence of Hypericin-Mediated Photodynamic Therapy on Interleukin-8 and -10 Secretion in Colon Cancer Cells

“…Yonar et al investigated HY-PDT-induced biophysical changes in colon cancer cells, which agree with our observation of HY accumulation in colon cancer cells. 51 In their study, HT-29 colon adenocarcinoma cells were subjected to HY-PDT at HY concentrations of 0.04, 0.08, and 0.15 µM. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of spin-labeled adenocarcinoma cells were evaluated post HY-PDT with the EPRSIMC program demonstrating concentration-dependent changes in the domain parameters that indicated an increase in HY concentration.…”

Role of Photoactive Phytocompounds in Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer

“…The in vitro and in vivo studies reported that hypericin PS activated at 594 nm could destroy cancer cell proliferation effectively. The researchers already demonstrated that the effect of herbal extracts combined with illumination could significantly reduce cancer development by prohibiting metabolic viability and proliferation cancer cells [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”