Silver/silver chloride nanoparticles inhibit the proliferation of human glioblastoma cells

• Published in: Cytotechnology (Dordrecht) 2018-12, Vol.70 (6), p.1607-1618
• Main Authors: Eugenio, Mateus, Campanati, Loraine, Müller, Nathalia, Romão, Luciana F., de Souza, Jorge, Alves-Leon, Soniza, de Souza, Wanderley, Sant’Anna, Celso
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Astrocytes; Automation; Bacteria; Biochemistry; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Brain cancer; Brain research; Brain tumors; Breast cancer; Cell growth; Cell proliferation; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemotherapy; Consent; Content analysis; Cytotoxicity; Ethics; Glioblastoma; Glioblastoma cells; Growth rate; Image processing; Lymphoma; Medical prognosis; Microbicides; Nanoparticles; Original; Original Article; Oxidative stress; Patients; Silver chloride; Temozolomide; Tumor cells; Tumors
• ISSN: 0920-9069; 1573-0778
• DOI: 10.1007/s10616-018-0253-1

Glioblastomas (GBM) are aggressive brain tumors with very poor prognosis. While silver nanoparticles represent a potential new strategy for anticancer therapy, the silver/silver chloride nanoparticles (Ag/AgCl-NPs) have microbicidal activity, but had not been tested against tumor cells. Here, we analyzed the effect of biogenically produced Ag/AgCl-NPs (from yeast cultures) on the proliferation of GBM02 glioblastoma cells (and of human astrocytes) by automated, image-based high-content analysis (HCA). We compared the effect of 0.1–5.0 µg mL −1 Ag/AgCl-NPs with that of 9.7–48.5 µg mL −1 temozolomide (TMZ, chemotherapy drug currently used to treat glioblastomas), alone or in combination. At higher concentrations, Ag/AgCl-NPs inhibited GBM02 proliferation more effectively than TMZ (up to 82 and 62% inhibition, respectively), while the opposite occurred at lower concentrations (up to 23 and 53% inhibition, for Ag/AgCl-NPs and TMZ, respectively). The combined treatment (Ag/AgCl-NPs + TMZ) inhibited GBM02 proliferation by 54–83%. Ag/AgCl-NPs had a reduced effect on astrocyte proliferation compared with TMZ, and Ag/AgCl-NPs + TMZ inhibited astrocyte proliferation by 5–42%. The growth rate and population doubling time analyses confirmed that treatment with Ag/AgCl-NPs was more effective against GBM02 cells than TMZ (~ 67-fold), and less aggressive to astrocytes, while Ag/AgCl-NP + TMZ treatment was no more effective against GBM02 cells than Ag/AgCl-NPs monotherapy. Taken together, our data indicate that 2.5 µg mL −1 Ag/AgCl-NPs represents the safest dose tested here, which affects GBM02 proliferation, with limited effect on astrocytes. Our findings show that HCA is a useful approach to evaluate the antiproliferative effect of nanoparticles against tumor cells.