ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Determination of ¹⁰B in lymphoma human cells after boron carrier treatment: comparison of ¹⁰BPA and immuno-nanoparticles

Marco Giovanni Persico, Patrizia Chiari, Raffaela Biesuz, and Giancarla Alberti

Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, via Taramelli 12, 27100, Pavia, Italy

E-mail: galberti@unipv.it

Abstract: Current cancer treatments lead to insufficient distribution of therapeutic agents in tumor cells due to their lack of selectivity often causing adverse effects in the normal cell uptake of the drug. The challenge is to design therapeutic drugs able to maximize the treatment of malignant cancers while minimizing their adverse effects. In this study, ¹⁰B incorporation in the B chronic lymphocytic leukemia cell line MEC-1 was investigated. The cells were treated with l-p-¹⁰borophenylalanine (¹⁰BPA) and ¹⁰boron immuno-nanoparticles (BNPs) loaded with ¹⁰BPA with or without the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody for different contact times. The uptake of ¹⁰B by the cells was determined by the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after acid mineralization. To obtain accurate and consistent data, the analytical procedure was optimized using factorial experimental design. It was observed that BNP loaded with ¹⁰BPA and anti-CD20 represents the best carrier system for ¹⁰B in B cells for long time (>10 h) whereas ¹⁰BPA seems to be the top drug for short time (< 4 h) procedures.

Keywords: boron-10 carrier – immuno-nanoparticles – in vitro experiments – human tumour cells

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-013-0435-4

Chemical Papers 68 (2) 253–259 (2014)