Effect of Ferulic Acid Loaded in Nanoparticle on Tissue Transglutaminase Expression Levels in Human Glioblastoma Cell Line

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2024-08, Vol.25 (15), p.8397
• Main Authors: Dell'Albani, Paola, Carbone, Claudia, Sposito, Giovanni, Spatuzza, Michela, Chiacchio, Maria Assunta, Grasso, Rosaria, Legnani, Laura, Santonocito, Debora, Puglia, Carmelo, Parenti, Rosalba, Puglisi, Giovanni, Campisi, Agatina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Antioxidants; Apoptosis - drug effects; Aprotinin; Brain cancer; Brain Neoplasms - drug therapy; Brain Neoplasms - metabolism; Brain Neoplasms - pathology; Cell culture; Cell cycle; cell cycle progression; Cell growth; Cell Line, Tumor; Coumaric Acids - pharmacology; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug resistance; Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; ferulic acid; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic - drug effects; glioblastoma; Glioblastoma - drug therapy; Glioblastoma - metabolism; Glioblastoma - pathology; Glioblastoma multiforme; Glioma; GTP-Binding Proteins - genetics; GTP-Binding Proteins - metabolism; Health aspects; human glioma cell line; Humans; Kinases; Lipids; Localization; Morphology; Nanoparticles - chemistry; nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC); Phosphorylation; Protein Glutamine gamma Glutamyltransferase 2 - metabolism; Proteins; Singh, Ghan Shyam; tissue transglutaminase (TG2); Transglutaminases - genetics; Transglutaminases - metabolism
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms25158397

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive cancers, characterized by a decrease in antioxidant levels. Evidence has demonstrated that ferulic acid (FA), a natural antioxidant particularly abundant in vegetables and fruits, could be a promising candidate for GBM treatment. Since FA shows a high instability that compromises its therapeutic application, it has been encapsulated into Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (NLCs) to improve its bioavailability in the brain. It has been demonstrated that tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is a multi-functional protein implicated in many physiological and pathological processes, including cancer. TG2 is also involved in GBM correlated with metastasis formation and drug resistance. Therefore, the evaluation of TG2 expression levels and its cellular localization are important to assess the anti-cancer effect of FA against GBM cancer. Our results have demonstrated that treatment with free FA and FA-NLCs in the U87-MG cancer cell line differently modified TG2 localization and expression levels. In the cells treated with free FA, TG2 appeared expressed both in the cytosol and in the nucleus, while the treatment with FA-NLCs showed that the protein is exclusively localized in the cytosol, exerting its pro-apoptotic effect. Therefore, our data suggest that FA loaded in NLCs could represent a promising natural agent for supplementing the current anti-cancer drugs used for the treatment of GBM.