PUBLICATION

Cyclometalated Ru(II) β-carboline complexes induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human HeLa cervical cancer cells via suppressing ERK and Akt signaling

Authors
Chen, J., Deng, Y., Wang, J., Chen, S., Peng, F., He, X., Liu, M., Luo, H., Zhang, J., Chen, L.
ID
ZDB-PUB-210831-15
Date
2021
Source
Journal of biological inorganic chemistry : JBIC : a publication of the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry   26(7): 793-808 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Zhang, Jingjing
Keywords
Apoptosis, Cyclometalated Ru(II) complexes, ERK/Akt, ROS, β-Carboline alkaloids
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents*/pharmacology
  • Apoptosis
  • Carbolines/pharmacology
  • Cell Cycle Checkpoints
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Female
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt
  • Reactive Oxygen Species
  • Ruthenium*/pharmacology
  • Signal Transduction
  • Uterine Cervical Neoplasms*/drug therapy
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
34459988 Full text @ J. Biol. Inorg. Chem.
Abstract
Two new cyclometalated Ru(II)-β-carboline complexes, [Ru(dmb)2(Cl-Ph-βC)](PF6) (dmb = 4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine; Cl-Ph-βC = Cl-phenyl-9H-pyrido[3,4-b]indole; RuβC-3) and [Ru(bpy)2(Cl-Ph-βC)](PF6) (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine; RuβC-4) were synthesized and characterized. The Ru(II) complexes display high cytotoxicity against HeLa cells, the stabilized human cervical cancer cell, with IC50 values of 3.2 ± 0.4 μM (RuβC-3) and 4.1 ± 0.6 μM (RuβC-4), which were considerably lower than that of non-cyclometalated Ru(II)-β-carboline complex [Ru(bpy)2(1-Py-βC)] (PF6)2 (61.2 ± 3.9 μM) by 19- and 15-folds, respectively. The mechanism studies indicated that both Ru(II) complexes could significantly inhibit HeLa cell migration and invasion, and effectively induce G0/G1 cell cycle arrest. The new Ru(II) complexes could also trigger apoptosis through activating caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), increasing the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, enhancing reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, decreasing mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and inducing cytochrome c release from mitochondria. Further research revealed that RuβC-3 could deactivate the ERK/Akt signaling pathway thus inhibiting HeLa cell invasion and migration, and inducing apoptosis. In addition, RuβC-3-induced apoptosis in HeLa cells was closely associated with the increase of intracellular ROS levels, which may act as upstream factors to regulate ERK and Akt pathways. More importantly, RuβC-3 exhibited low toxicity on both normal BEAS-2B cells in vitro and zebrafish embryos in vivo. Consequently, the developed Ru(II) complexes have great potential on developing novel low-toxic anticancer drugs.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping