(190s) Polydopamine Nanoparticles: A Possible Strategy to Fight Against Cancer

Polydopamine is a synthetic melanin analogue [1] with a growing central role in the cancer research field, mainly because its biocompatibility. This property has been demonstrated in several previous works performed with different cell lines and, besides, polydopamine long-term harmless has been studied in rats [2].

Most in vitro biocompatibility studies are based on the accomplishment of a MTT assay, which relies on the absorbance measurement of the formed formazan salts in viable cells’ mitochondria [3]. Nevertheless, polydopamine presents a great ability of adhesion to multiple materials [4], being the one that is used in culture plates found among them. As this polymer is able to absorb between 200 and 900 nm wavelengths, its absorbance overlaps with the formazan salts one and this fact could lead to a cell survival overestimation. So, what is the polydopamine real effect over cellular viability?

In order to answer such question, a new protocol for the performance of MTT assays with this melanin analogue has been stablished in the present work. Following this protocol, polydopamine cytotoxicity over two different tumor cell lines (BT474 and HTC116) has been studied and, as result, it has been shown that polydopamine could act as a possible antineoplasic agent.

References

[1] Meredith P, Sarna T. The physical and chemical properties of eumelanin. Pigment Cell Research. 2006;19:572-94.

[2] Liu Y, Ai K, Liu J, Deng M, He Y, Lu L. Dopamine-melanin colloidal nanospheres: an efficient near-infrared photothermal therapeutic agent for in vivo cancer therapy. Advanced Materials. 2013;25:1353-9.

[3] Berridge MV, Herst PM,Tan AS. Tetrazolium dyes as tools in cell biology: new insights into their cellular reduction. Biotechnology Annual Review: Elsevier; 2005. p 127-52.

[4] Lee H, Dellatore SM, Miller WM, Messersmith PB. Mussel-inspired surface chemistry for multifunctional coatings. Science. 2017;318:426-30.