dendrosomal nano-curcumin modulates p-glycoprotein activity and induces apoptosis in wild type and p53-mutant breast cancer cell lines

Background: dendrosomal nano-curcumin (dnc) represents an enormous potential to serve as a therapeutic anticancer agent. here, we investigated the effect of dnc on wild type- and p53-mutant breast cancer cells. methods: mcf-7 and t47d cells were treated with dnc and investigated for cell viability through mtt assay. the mode of death was analyzed using annexin v/fitc staining and parp cleavage assays. flow cytometric efflux and cell swelling tests were employed to assess the p-glycoprotein (p-gp) transporter activity. moreover, real-time pcr was employed to study the expression of bax, bcl-2 as well as survivin and its δex3 splicing variant. results: our findings confirmed that dnc repressed cancer cell proliferation by induction of apoptosis. additionally, dnc significantly modulated p-gp function that might lead to improved cellular permanence of curcumin. malfunction of p-gp activity by dnc demonstrates its capability in reducing the drug resistance of p53-mutant cancer cells. conclusions: in conclusion, our findings demonstrated that dendrosomal nano-curcumin could be considered an anti-tumor therapeutic for p53-mutant tumor malignancies.