Combination Treatment of Citral Potentiates the Efficacy of Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemoperfusion with Pirarubicin for Colorectal Cancer

Mol Pharm. 2017 Oct 2;14(10):3588-3597. doi: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.7b00652. Epub 2017 Sep 6.

Abstract

Citral is a widely used penetration enhancer that has been used to assist the delivery of drugs through the skin. In this study we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of combination treatments of citral with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for colorectal cancer and to unravel the underlying mechanism by which citral increased the efficacy of HIPEC. In vitro experiments indicated that citral increased cytoplasmic absorption of pirarubicin and potentiated the effects of pirarubicin on colorectal cancer cells to induce apoptosis. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) activity was elevated after single or combo treatments with pirarubicin, leading to compromised NF-κB signaling. Therefore, the results suggested that the effects of citral were mediated by increasing cell permeability and ROS productions. Furthermore, the colorectal xenograft model was used to evaluate the efficacy of the combo treatment at the histological and molecular levels, which showed that the cotreatment with citral for colorectal cancer increased the efficacy of HIPEC with pirarubicin with respect to both ascite control and tumor load. The results indicated that citral was an effective additive for HIPEC with pirarubicin for colorectal cancer, which warrant further effort to explore the translational application of this new treatment regimen.

Keywords: apoptosis; citral; colorectal carcinoma; hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion; pirarubicin.

MeSH terms

  • Acyclic Monoterpenes
  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / pharmacology*
  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / therapeutic use
  • Apoptosis / drug effects
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / mortality
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / therapy*
  • Combined Modality Therapy / methods
  • Doxorubicin / analogs & derivatives*
  • Doxorubicin / pharmacology
  • Doxorubicin / therapeutic use
  • Drug Synergism
  • Female
  • HCT116 Cells
  • Humans
  • Hyperthermia, Induced / methods*
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Monoterpenes / pharmacology*
  • Monoterpenes / therapeutic use
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Substances

  • Acyclic Monoterpenes
  • Monoterpenes
  • Doxorubicin
  • pirarubicin
  • citral