Research Article

Serum adsorption, cellular internalization and consequent impact of cuprous oxide nanoparticles on uveal melanoma cells: implications for cancer therapy

Department of Ophthalmology, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

^‡Authors contributed equally

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Qingqiang Xu^‡

Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

^‡Authors contributed equally

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Yongzhe Zhu

Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

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Shiying Zhu

Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

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Hailin Tang

Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

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Yan Wang

Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

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Hao Ren

Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

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Ping Zhao

Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

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Zhongtian Qi

Department of Microbiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

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Shihong Zhao

**Author for correspondence:

E-mail Address: zhaosh@smmu.edu.cn

Department of Ophthalmology, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China

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Published Online:15 Oct 2015https://doi.org/10.2217/nnm.15.178

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Abstract

Aim: To investigate the biological fate of cuprous oxide nanoparticles (Cu₂O-NPs) and to evaluate their potential in uveal melanoma therapy. Materials & methods: The protein corona, cellular uptake mechanism and localization of Cu₂O-NPs were investigated. Furthermore, the effect of Cu₂O-NPs on uveal melanoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and possible mechanisms were studied in detail. Results: Cu₂O-NPs are able to adsorb serum proteins in cell culture medium, which are then internalized by uveal melanoma cells mainly through lipid raft-mediated endocytosis. Furthermore, Cu₂O-NPs selectively inhibit cancer cell growth and impair the ability of uveal melanoma cell migration, invasion and the cytoskeleton assembly. The mechanism may be that Cu₂O-NPs located in and damage mitochondria, autophagolysosomes and lysosomes, leading to elevated reactive oxygen species level and over-stimulated apoptosis and autophagy. Conclusion: The data provide detailed information of Cu₂O-NPs for further application and indicate that Cu₂O-NPs could be a potential agent for uveal melanoma therapy.

Keywords:

Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest; •• of considerable interest

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Published online 15 October 2015

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Financial & competing interests disclosure

This project has been funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81470652, No. 81271017) and National Science and Technology Major Project (2011ZXJ09104-10C). We are grateful to Youheng Wei (State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Institute of Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China) and Haifeng Wen (Environmental Science and Engineering Department, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China) for excellent technical assistance. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

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