Development of LC–MS method for analysis of paclitaxel-inhibited growth and enhanced therapeutic response in human glioblastoma cells

Glioma stem cells are considered responsible for drug resistance and glioma relapse resulting in poor prognosis in glioblastoma multiforme. SU3 glioma cell is a highly invasive glioma stem cell line from the patients with glioblastoma multifrome. It is of great significance to study the efficacy and molecular mechanism for anticancer drug effects on SU3 glioma cells. In this work, we develop a liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) method for direct analysis of the role of drugs (paclitaxel) on SU3 glioma cells at the molecular level. We use the specific fluorescence dyes to evaluate cell viability, the levels of ROS and GSH when the cells were treated with drugs. In addition, the LC–MS platform was successfully employed to detect the amount of 6-O-methylguanine, demonstrating that it is effective to induce cell apoptosis and enhance the cytotoxic response of SU3 glioma cells. The analytical linear equals are Y = 9.49 × 105X + 2.42 × 104 for 6-O-methylguanine (R2 = 0.9998) and Y = 4.72 × 104X + 2.21 × 103 (R2 = 0.9996) for 7-methylguanine. Thus, the combination of cell-specific fluorescence dyes and LC–MS method enables us to reveal the molecular mechanism of paclitaxel-inhibited growth and enhanced therapeutic response in the chemotherapy for glioma multiforme.

Paclitaxel usually binds to microtubules of SU3 glioma cells, and thus enhanced the cytotoxic response of SU3 glioma cells to temozolomide. This study developed a LC–MS platform to reveal the molecular mechanism of paclitaxel-inhibited growth and enhanced therapeutic response in the chemotherapy for glioma multiforme.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide