Several commercially available triorganotin compounds were previously found to function as agonist ligands for nuclear retinoid X receptor (RXR) molecules. Triphenyltin isoselenocyanate (TPT-NCSe), a novel selenium atom containing a derivative of triorganotin origin, was found to represent a new cognate bioactive ligand for RXRs. TPT-NCSe displayed a concentration- and time-dependent decrease in the cell viability in both human breast carcinoma MCF-7 (estrogen receptor positive) and MDA‐MB‐231 (triple negative) cell lines. Reactive oxygen species levels generated in response to TPT-NCSe were significantly higher in both carcinoma cell lines treated with TPT-NCSe when compared to mock-treated samples. Treatment with 500 nM TPT-NCSe caused a decrease in SOD1 and increased SOD2 mRNA in MCF-7 cells. The levels of SOD2 mRNA were more increased following the treatment with TPT-NCSe along with 1 μM all-trans retinoic acid (AtRA) in MCF-7 cells. An increased superoxide dismutase SOD1 and SOD2 mRNA levels were also detected in combination treatment of 500 nM TPT-NCSe and 1 μM AtRA in TPT-NCSe-treated MDA-MB-231 cells. The data have also shown that TPT-NCSe induces apoptosis via a caspase cascade triggered by the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. TPT-NCSe modulates the expression levels of apoptosis‐related proteins, Annexin A5, Bcl‐2 and BAX family proteins, and finally, it enhances the expression levels of its cognate nuclear receptor subtypes RXRalpha and RXRbeta.

Department of Chemical Drugs Faculty of Pharmacy Masaryk University Palackého třída 1946 1 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry Institute of Pharmacy Paracelsus Medical University Strubergasse 21 5020 Salzburg Austria

Institute of Experimental Endocrinology Biomedical Research Center Slovak Academy of Sciences Dúbravská cesta 9 845 05 Bratislava Slovak Republic

References provided by Crossref.org