New water soluble magnesium phthalocyanine as a potential anticancer drug: Cytotoxic and apoptotic effect on different cancer cell lines
Abstract
Although phthalocyanines are usually used a photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy,
these works focus on the directly cytotoxic effect of a new water-soluble magnesium phthalocyanine.
The new water-soluble magnesium phthalocyanine 2 was synthesized, characterized and investigated for
cytotoxic and apoptotic activities. The cytotoxic activities of the compound 2 were determined by using
(3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) cell viability assay on human
breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231, MCF-7), human prostate cancer cells (PC-3), and human healthy
lung fibroblast cells (WI-38). The cells were plated and treated 1 to 20 mM of different concentrations of
the compound. MTT assay results indicated that the compound 2 has concentration and time-dependent
cytotoxic activities against cancer cells. We also observed that the compound displayed lower toxicity
against WI-38 healthy cells than cancer cells at 48 and 72 h. The compound showed a significant cytotoxic
activity difference between breast cancer cells and WI-38 healthy cells at 48 and 72 h. Selectivity
index of the compound 2 against MCF-7 for 72 h was calculated >15.62. We also studied the apoptotic
and necrotic effect of compound 2 using TUNEL and PI staining, respectively. It was found that the
synthesized compound 2 increased apoptotic and necrotic cells.