Rodriguez Martinez, Olga M.

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    The effect of CaS/DMSO nanoparticle dispersion in the cytoskeleton and focal adhesion points of the human melanoma fibroblast adherent cell line Hs 895.T (ATCC CRL7637) and human normal skin fibroblasts adherent cell line CCD-1090Sk (ATCC CRL2106)
    (2022-05-20) Rodriguez Martinez, Olga M.; Diffoot-Carlo, Nanette; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Castro Rosario, Miguel E.; Acevedo-Suárez, Carlos A.; Department of Biology; Cabrera-Ríos, Mauricio
    The Skin Cancer Foundation highlights that melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer and there are different treatments for each type. These treatments are invasive and not all patients can control the side effects. For this reason, a non-invasive treatment, with a dispersion of nanoparticles (NP) composed of Calcium and Sulfur dissolved in Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) (CaS/DMSO) is proposed. These NP has been the subject of research because they disassociate spontaneously in proton-rich environments to produce calcium ions and H2S. This work aims to study the changes caused by the NP in the cytoskeleton and the focal adhesion points (FAP) of the cells by studying two proteins: F-Actin and Vinculin. The hypothesis is that if NP can induce cellular death, a significant difference in FAP expression will be observed between cancerous and non-cancerous cells. Studies with FITC allowed tracking of stability of the FAP when NP were added. At 48 hr the normal cells cultured with the NP show an increase in Vinculin and F-Actin expression, but a decrease in DMSO. In contrast, the opposite occurred with melanoma cells. Measuring actin polymerization demonstrates the effect of NP treatments in the FAP. Damage to FAP, prevents proper attachment and cell spreading, leading to apoptosis. The results indicate that NP does not adversely affect cell cytoskeleton and focal adhesion point expression in normal cells, but it significantly reduces Vinculin expression in human melanoma adherent cells. Furthermore, as these effects are not observed in the benign cells, we are led to conclude that the difference in extracellular microenvironment pH between human skin benign and melanoma cancer cells results in the observed selectivity to affect the FAP.