Assessing in vitro anti-cancer efficacy of sulfonated water-soluble phthalocyanine on breast and prostate cancer cells

Abstract

Since cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, the development of new anticancer drugs has become important. Phthalocyanines (Pcs) as anticancer agents have attracted particular attention in recent years. Especially water-soluble sulfonated phthalocyanines have been used consistently for both the diagnosis and treatment of many different types of cancer, such as small lung tumors. Motivated by these facts, since the anti-cancer activity of sulfonated water-soluble cobalt phthalocyanine in prostate and breast cancer without photoactivation is not known before, we aimed to investigate the in vitro anti-cancer effectiveness (cyto- and genotoxic effect) of alpha-substituted water-soluble cobalt phthalocyanine (WS-CoPc) complex on prostate and breast cancer cells for the first time. For this purpose ROS production, cell death, and DNA damage levels, changes in nuclear and cell morphology, and the expression of apoptosis and ROS-related genes were determined. WS-CoPc exhibited anti-cancer effects with cytotoxic and genotoxic features in both prostate and breast cancer cells also the anti-cancer efficacy is more prominent in prostate cancer cells. Therefore our results demonstrated that this Pc has high cytotoxic and genotoxic effects, especially in prostate cancer cells in vitro and further studies are needed to reveal the current anticancer potential of this Pc without photoactivation.