Cytotoxicity of Endogenous Lipids N-acyl Dopamines and their Possible Metabolic Derivatives for Human Cancer Cell Lines of Different Histological Origin

BACKGROUND/AIM: Dopamine amides of long chain fatty acids are a family of endogenous mammalian lipids with an unknown function; they are anti-proliferative for the C6 glioblastoma cell line. To assess their possible anti-cancer activity we evaluated their cytotoxicity for a set of cancer cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Anti-proliferative and cytotoxic actions of these substances were evaluated in HOS, IMR-32, MCF-7, Namalwa, K-562 and HEK 293 cell lines (18 h incubation time) using MTT and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) tests, accordingly. RESULTS: All N-acyl dopamines (NADA) induced cell death in all cell lines tested with a 50% lethal dose (LD50) in the range of 0.5-80 μM, except for HEK-293. For HEK-293 only N-arachidonoyl epinephrine demonstrated an LD50 below 100 μM. CONCLUSION: According to the structure-activity relationship, N-acyl dopamines with an intact catechol group and a non-modified hydrophobic fatty acid residue are cytotoxic to cancer cell lines of various histological origins.