Novel flourescent spiroborate esters: potential therapeutic agents in in vitro cancer models
Authors: T R Santhosh Kumar
S Balachandran
S Anjana
Annie Abraham
Jeena John
Josna Joseph
Journal: Molecular Biology Reports (2019)
Discipline: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & GENETICS
Keywords: Anti-cancer agent; Curcumin; Drug delivery; Natural product; Skin cancer.
Affiliations: Department of Biotechnology, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India., Department of Biochemistry, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India., Department of Chemistry, MG College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India., Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India., Department of Biochemistry, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. .

Abstract:  The current treatment system in cancer therapy, which includes chemotherapy/radiotherapy is expensive and often deleterious to surrounding healthy tissue. Presently, several medicinal plants and their constituents are in use to manage the development and progression of these diseases.They have been found effective, safe, and less expensive. In the present study, we are proposing the utility of a new class of curcumin derivative, Rubrocurcumin, the spiroborate ester of curcumin with boric acid and oxalic acid (1:1:1), which have enhanced biostability for therapeutic applications. In vitro cytocompatibility of this drug complex was analysed using MTT assay, neutral red assay, lactate dehydrogenase assay in 3T3L1 adipocytes. Anti tumour activity of this drug complex on MCF7 and A431 human cancer cell line was studied by morphological analysis using phase contrast microscopy, Hoechst staining and cell cycle analysis by FACS. To explore the chemotherapeutic effect, the cytotoxic effect of this compound was also carried out. Rubrocurcumin is more biostable than natural curcumin in physiological medium. Our results prove that this curcumin derivative drug complex possess more efficacy and anti-cancer activity compared with curcumin. The findings out of this study suggests this novel compound as potential candidate for site targeted drug delivery. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 Figure 8 appears to include two photos of the same set of cells. *** ![file] , 
 We have come to notice the comments about our published article. The above errors occurred due to the disarrangement of data. The original documents containing the correct images( of Hoechst staining cells- treated with 100 and 200 microgram ml CBO) forwarded herewith for ready reference. It may be seen that the errors occurred are only minor mistakes when the images are arranged, which can be treated as human error. ![file] , 
 #2 Thank you for your reply. I am a bit confused. Were both c and d (in the original figure) improperly selected? I donu2019t see either of these in the corrected figure. In any case, will you be contacting the journal to correct the article? On a related note, it appears that the last authoru2019s gmail address has changed over time and some of the notifications from the PubPeer system may have been sent to an address to which you no longer have access. You may search by author name for other papers, for example: https: pubpeer.com search?q=Annie+Abraham ,