D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) catalyzes the oxidation of D-amino acids generating hydrogen peroxide, a potential producer of reactive oxygen species. In this study, we used a CLytA-DAAO chimera, both free and bound to magnetic nanoparticles, against colon carcinoma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and glioblastoma cell lines. We found that the enzyme induces cell death in most of the cell lines tested and its efficiency increases significantly when it is immobilized in nanoparticles. We also tested this enzyme therapy in non-tumor cells, and we found that there is not cell death induction, or it is significantly lower than in tumor cells. The mechanism triggering cell death is apparently a classical apoptosis pathway in the glioblastoma cell lines, while in colon and pancreatic carcinoma cell lines, CLytA-DAAO-induced cell death is a necrosis. Our results constitute a proof of concept that an enzymatic therapy, based on magnetic nanoparticles-delivering CLytA-DAAO, could constitute a useful therapy against cancer and besides it could be used as an enhancer of other treatments such as epigenetic therapy, radiotherapy, and treatments based on DNA repair.
Keywords: cancer therapy; choline-binding proteins; cytotoxicity; magnetic nanoparticle; oxidative damage; reactive oxygen species.