The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential antitumor efficacy of conjugated linoleic acid-paclitaxel （CLA-PTX） on B16-F10 melanoma cell line in vitro and in vivo. The in vitro cytotoxicity, apoptosis and cell cycle of CLA-PTX were investigated. The in vitro cellular uptake of CLA-PTX in B16-F10 cells was also analyzed. The antitumor activity of CLA-PTX was also evaluated in B16-F10 tumor-bearing C57BL6/N mice in vivo. The in vitro cytotoxicity results showed that the IC50 of the CLA-PTX is （4.25±0.43） μM, compared with that of （6.70±0.80） μM in PTX treatment group （P〈0.01）. CLA-PTX increased the percentage of total apoptotic cells compared with that of control and PTX treatment groups （P〈0.01）. Compared with untreated cells, CLA-PTX arrested cell cycle progression at the S phase, whereas PTX caused accumulation of cell at GE-M phase both along with the reduction of the cellular fraction arrested at the G1 phase. The amount of cellular uptake of CLA-PTX was significantly higher than that of PTX （P〈0.01）. The in vivo antitumor activity of CLA-PTX was significantly higher than that of control and PTX treatment groups （P〈0.01 or P〈0.05）. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that CLA-PTX has significant antitumor activity in B 16-F 10 cell line.
Mitochondria are increasingly recognized as important targets for tumor treatment because of their central roles in apoptotic pathways and cellular metabolism. Dichloroacetate （DCA）, a low molecular weight mitochondria-targeting agent, exhibits potential therapeutic effects for tumors. Based on the effects of DCA on tumor cellular metabolism, we carried out this study to investigate the anti-tumor activity of DCA in C6 glioma cells in vitro. The results showed that DCA was able to increase the activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase （PDH）, induce the production of reactive oxygen species （ROS） and reduce the mitochondrial membrane potential （MMP） in C6 ceils in vitro （P〈0.05 or 0.01）, indicating that the anti-tumor effects of DCA in C6 cells could be through the activation of the mitochondrial pathway. In conclusion, mitochondria could be a viable therapeutic target for the treatment of glioma.
