Vitamin C increases DNA damage and melanoma cell death
Last reviewed: 14.06.2024
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Recent research suggests that using ascorbate (vitamin C) to increase DNA damage in melanoma cells may be a more effective way to treat the disease, according to study co-author Marcus Cook, professor and chair of the department of molecular biosciences at the University of South Florida.
The results were published in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers has found that melanoma cells have more DNA damage and less antioxidant protection compared to normal skin cells. When treated with hydrogen peroxide and vitamin C, melanoma cells showed even more DNA damage and higher levels of cell death, while normal cells were protected. Additionally, the study results showed that vitamin C enhanced the effectiveness of an existing melanoma drug, elesclomol.
Cook, who also leads the oxidative stress research group, noted that studying the effects of vitamin C on DNA and skin cells has a long history, which helped guide them to the current study.
"We have been studying the effects of antioxidants since the late 1990s and have been fascinated by vitamin C's ability to act as a pro-oxidant (causing DNA damage) and antioxidant (preventing DNA damage), as well as its apparent ability to modulate DNA repair. This, combined with Our long-standing interest in skin biology/solar ultraviolet radiation, also dating back to the 1990s, led us to the present study," said Cook.
"The results show that melanoma cells have higher levels of DNA damage compared to keratinocytes (the main type of cell found in the epidermis). We found that this damage is proportional to the amount of melanin in the melanocytes - the more melanin, the more damage." " he explained. "This occurs in cells that have not been exposed to sunlight, indicating that melanin within cells may cause damage in melanoma cells."
"Our study shows that the levels of potentially harmful reactive species were proportional to the amount of melanin, and the levels of protective antioxidants were inversely proportional. Taking all this into account, we found that we could use this situation to selectively kill melanoma cells," he added. p>
Cook acknowledges that additional clinical studies and trials will strengthen these results and help advance the inclusion of ascorbate in treatment.
"Given that ascorbate has already been well studied and is known to be well tolerated, I believe clinicians may be able to incorporate ascorbate into existing treatments to enhance existing approaches if they work by inducing DNA damage, as elesclomol does," said He. “The oxidative stress biomarkers we use in my Oxidative Stress Research Group laboratory are particularly suitable for clinical research, and we could support biomonitoring of patients in vivo (in living cells of the body) if clinical trials begin.”