Doxorubicin (DOX) is a very potent and effective anticancer agent. However, the effectiveness\nof DOX in osteosarcoma is usually limited by the acquired drug resistance. Recently, Vitamin D (Vit-D)\nwas shown to suppress the growth of many human cancer cells. Taken together, we synthesized DOX-Vit\nD by conjugating Vit-D to DOX in order to increase the delivery of DOX into cancer cells and mitigate\nthe chemoresistance associated with DOX. For this purpose, MG63 cells were treated with 10 .. M DOX or DOX-Vit D for 24 h. Thereafter, MTT, real-time PCR and western blot analysis were used to determine\ncell proliferation, genes and proteins expression, respectively. Our results showed that DOX-Vit D,\nbut not DOX, significantly elicited an apoptotic signal in MG63 cells as evidenced by induction of\ndeath receptor, Caspase-3 and BCLxs genes. Mechanistically, the DOX-Vit D-induced apoptogens were\ncredited to the activation of p-JNK and p-p38 signaling pathway and the inhibition of proliferative\nproteins, p-Akt and p-mTOR. Our findings propose that DOX-Vit D suppressed the growth of MG63\ncells by inducing apoptosis while inhibiting cell survival and proliferative signaling pathways. DOX-Vit\nD may serve as a novel drug delivery approach to potentiate the delivery of DOX into cancer cells.
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