A study on ER stress-induced apoptosis pathway in cervical cancer HeLa cells treated with biosynthesized gold nanoparticles

Abstract

Abstract Background The expression of apoptotic family of protein plays a major role in induction of programmed cell death. There are six major apoptotic proteins such as Caspase 12, Bcl 2, BAX, Cytochrome c, PARP3 and Mcl1. All these proteins have crucial role in the regulation of apoptosis through mitochondrial degradation, DNA damage, nuclear condensation and eventually cell death of the cancerous cells. It was observed that the apoptotic pathway has been initiated in the cancer cells from the expression of the apoptotic proteins. The results emphasized that the apoptotic cell death has been induced by the nanomaterials against cervical cancer HeLa cell line. Methods Initially, the nanomaterials were individually checked for potential anticancer activities through MTT assay. The cervical cancer HeLa cell line was treated with nanoparticles, nanoconjugates, nano-dox conjugate and chitosan–nano-dox conjugates. The cell lysates were processed for SDS–PAGE followed by Western blotting. The apoptotic expression has been studied for six major apoptotic proteins such as Caspase 12, Bcl 2, BAX, Cytochrome c, PARP3 and Mcl 1. Results In the present study, the biosynthesized gold nanoparticles, nanoconjugates, nano-dox conjugate, chitosan–nano-dox conjugate were treated against cervical cancer HeLa cell line. The results demonstrated anticancer effects of the nanocompounds implying nanoparticles induced apoptotic pathway in the cancer cells. Further apoptotic expression was studied for six major apoptotic proteins such as Caspase 12, Bcl 2, BAX, Cytochrome c, PARP3 and Mcl 1. The present study was focussed on anticancer efficiency of biosynthesized nanomaterials. Conclusions The in vitro anticancer study showed that the nanomaterials induced cell death over the treated cervical cancer cells. In the process of apoptotic cell death, the caspase cascade pathway was activated. The gene expression was checked in line with some of the genes involved in apoptosis, cell death. The expression was checked for Caspase 12, BAX, Bcl2, cyt c, PARP3 and Mcl 1. The expression of apoptotic proteins suggested that the cancer cell death was mediated through ER stress-induced pathway involving the major apoptotic proteins.

Keywords

• Apoptosis
• Cervical cancer
• HeLa cells
• Gold nanoparticles
• Doxorubicin