Selective cytotoxicity of the anti-diabetic drug, metformin, in glucose-deprived chicken DT40 cells.

Autor: Kei Kadoda, Takahito Moriwaki, Masataka Tsuda, Hiroyuki Sasanuma, Masamichi Ishiai, Minoru Takata, Hiroshi Ide, Shin-Ichiro Masunaga, Shunichi Takeda, Keizo Tano
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS ONE, Vol 12, Iss 9, p e0185141 (2017)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185141
Popis: Metformin is a biguanide drug that is widely used in the treatment of diabetes. Epidemiological studies have indicated that metformin exhibits anti-cancer activity. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this activity currently remain unclear. We hypothesized that metformin is cytotoxic in a tumor-specific environment such as glucose deprivation and/or low oxygen (O2) tension. We herein demonstrated that metformin was highly cytotoxic under glucose-depleted, but not hypoxic (2% O2) conditions. In order to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of this selective cytotoxicity, we treated exposed DNA repair-deficient chicken DT40 cells with metformin under glucose-depleted conditions and measured cellular sensitivity. Under glucose-depleted conditions, metformin specifically killed fancc and fancl cells that were deficient in FANCC and FANCL proteins, respectively, which are involved in DNA interstrand cross-link repair. An analysis of chromosomal aberrations in mitotic chromosome spreads revealed that a clinically relevant concentration of metformin induced DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in fancc and fancl cells under glucose-depleted conditions. In summary, metformin induced DNA damage under glucose-depleted conditions and selectively killed cells. This metformin-mediated selective toxicity may suppress the growth of malignant tumors that are intrinsically deprived of glucose.
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