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Abstract
Purpose
Retinoblastoma (RB) is one of the most important cancers in children with a higher rate of prevalence in developing countries. Despite different approaches to the treatment of RB, it seems necessary to discover a new approach to its treatment. Today, mitochondria are recognised as an important target in the treatment of cancer. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have been studied by researchers due to their important biological effects.
Methods
In this study, the effects of SPIONs on mitochondria isolated from Y79 retinoblastoma cells were investigated.
Results
The results showed that SPIONs were able to increase the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and subsequently damage the mitochondrial membrane and release cytochrome c a as one of the important pro-apoptotic proteins of RB mitochondria. Furthermore, the results indicated a decrease in cell viability and an increase in caspase-3 activity in Y79 retinoblastoma cells.
Conclusions
These events can lead to the killing of cancerous mitochondria. Our results suggest that SPIONs can cause mitochondrial dysfunction and death in RB mitochondria.
Author contributions
Jalal Pourahmad conceived, performed and designed and supervised the experiments and wrote the paper; Enayatollah Seydi and Ghazaleh Tahmasebi performed the experiments, wrote the paper and performed data analysis.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement
The datasets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.