Atividade de complexos metálicos de cobre em células tumorais mamárias

Abstract

Breast Cancer (BC) is the most common malignant neoplasm among women, being the main chronic disease that causes death among Brazilian women. Among the main treatments, chemotherapy stands out, which, despite being essential in figthing circulating tumor cells, faces challenges related to side effects and resistance. In this context, it is necessary to search for new drugs and metallic compounds, such as copper, have been highlighted for their antitumor biological effects, including DNA damage, generation of reactive oxygen species and induction of apoptosis. The present work aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of 10 unpublished copper (II) chemical complexes against mammary tumor cell lines MCF7 (luminal phenotype) and MDA-MB-231 (triple-negative phenotype). These cells were treated with the compounds Lu50 to Lu59, and the cytotoxicity was evaluated by Alamar Blue. Treatments were performed for 24 and 48 hours at seven concentrations: 1,25 µM; 2,5 µM; 5 µM; 10 µM; 20 µM; 40 µM and 80 µM. In none of the treatments carried out with the compounds Lu50 to Lu57 there was a reduction in viability of less than 50%. Lu58 and Lu59, in 24 hours, showed a cytotoxic effect against the MDA-MB-231 lineage, in a dose-dependent manner, with an IC50 of 25.09 µM and 24.21 µM, respectively. MCF7 was more sensitive to Lu59 with IC50=64.75 µM after 24 hours and IC50=3,77 µM after 48 hours. Thus, Lu58 and Lu59 were also evaluated in the non-tumor cell line MCF-10A, but did not prove to be selective. We suggest that other ligands must be evaluated, as well as the development of formulations in order to increase the selectivity of the complexes to be considered in in vivo studies.