Cellular-Binding Of Carboranylalanine And Some Effects Of Boron Neutron-Capture - Analysis Of Cultured Melanoma B16 Cells

The boron containing substances L- and D-carboranylalanine might be of interest for boron neutron capture therapy, BNCT. Cultured mouse melanoma B16 cells were analyzed regarding binding of these substances and some introductory studies on effects of thermal neutron irradiation were also carried out. Comparisons were made with two boron containing compounds, p-boronophenylalanine (BPA) and boronated thiouracil (BTU-1), previously proposed for BNCT of melanomas. The results showed that both L- and D-carboranylalanine bound well in the B16 cells whereas BTU-1 gave no, and BPA only a low, binding. Thus, both forms of carboranes bound better than the two previously proposed substances. The carboranes also bound rather well in two tested human melanoma cell lines, IGR1 and RPMI-7951. Both L- and D-carboranylalanine showed a certain binding to isolated melanin but were not incorporated during melanin synthesis. Cultured glioma cells, used for comparison, bound BPA and to some extent the carboranes. This indicates that the substances are not melanoma specific. The carboranes caused some acute detachment of monolayer growing cells but were not strongly toxic since they did not reduce the growth rate. The cells treated with L-carboranylalanine or BPA showed, after neutron irradiation, a clear decrease in survival compared to the controls whereas no or only small effects were seen for cells treated with D-carboranylalanine or BTU-1. These results were conflicting since BPA gave therapeutical effects although only small amounts were bound while D-carboranylalanine gave no significant therapeutical effect in spite of better binding. One explanation might be different intracellular localizations. This has to be studied in more detail.