A major challenge in drug delivery is to increase the efficiency by which a compound can deliver the maximum amount of a therapeutic agent to the tumor while minimizing any adverse effects to normal cells (Chakrabarti1 et al., 2012). To fully develop its treatment

potential, BNCT requires the combination of a suitable thermal neutron flux and a selective uptake of 10B in the target tissue. The latter condition is more critical because none Selleck Saracatinib of the boron carriers used for experimental or clinical purposes so far have shown optimal selectivity for cancer cells compared to normal cells (Menichetti et al., 2009). The BNCT treatment induced moderate malondialdehyde production only at the highest concentration of BPA in melanocytes. The other concentrations, along with the irradiated control, did not manifest

an appreciable increase of malondialdehyde, demonstrating that this therapy did not influence free radical production in normal cells. In SKMEL-28, B16F10, IPC-298 and MEWO melanoma cells there were high malondialdehyde production (at least 10–30-fold increase) after BNCT treatment in the same conditions (Faião-Flores et al., 2011a). It should be emphasized that the main criterion for the development of successful boron-containing compounds in cells click here is a high selectivity of these compounds for cancer cells over normal cells (Gnewuch and Sosnovskym, 2002). There is a decrease in normal melanocytes viability only in the highest BPA concentrations followed by neutron irradiation. The IC50 found here was significantly high compared to SKMEL-28 melanoma cells: IC50 = 34.4 mg/mL and Resveratrol 3.7 mg/mL in normal

melanocytes and melanoma cells SKMEL-28, respectively. These results confirm the most selectivity of BPA for tumor cells in vitro without inducing high cell death in normal cells, which has been reported elsewhere ( Faião-Flores et al., 2011a, Faião-Flores et al., 2012 and Menichetti et al., 2009). The increased BPA selectivity in vivo was studied in mice bearing melanoma tumors consisting of B16F10 cells, and the study found that the liver, heart and lungs do not take up boron from BPA, whereas other organs, such as the spleen and brain, captured minimal quantities of this compound ( Faião-Flores et al., 2011a and Faião-Flores et al., 2011b). Melanoma cells are strongly resistant to many chemotherapeutic drugs, as demonstrated by their ability to block apoptosis and stimulate tumor progression (Soengas and Lowe, 2003). The survival of adherent cells depends on an uninterrupted connection with the components of the extracellular matrix (ECM), such as laminin and fibronectin (Makino et al., 2000). The interactions between cells and ECM are crucial for cell behavior, growth and death (Wunrau et al., 2009). The detachment of adherent cells from the ECM can induce apoptosis almost immediately, a process known as Anoikis ( Grossman et al., 2001).