The aim of this study is to determine the incorporations of radiolabeled bleomycin ((131)I-BLM) and bleomycin-glucuronide ((131)I-BLMGLU) on PC-3 (human prostate carcinoma cell line), Caco-2 (human colon adenocarcinoma cell line), Hutu-80 (Human Duodenum adenocarcinoma cell line), and A549 (Human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line) cancerous cell lines. For this purpose, BLM and BLMGLU enyzmatically synthesized were labeled with (131)I, quality control studies were done and the incorporation yields of (131)I-BLM and (131)I-BLMGLU on these cell lines were measured. Quality-control studies showed that the radiolabeling yields were obtained as 95% and 90% for (131)I-BLM and (131)I-BLMGLU, respectively. Also, as a result of the cell culture studies, it was found that (131)I-BLM and (131)I-BLMGLU had higher incorporation on PC-3 cells than that of other cell lines. In addition to this, it was reported that the incorporation yield of (131)I-BLMGLU was higher than that (131)I-BLM. At the end of the study, cytotoxicities of BLM and BLMGLU on PC-3 cancerous cell line were inspected and fluorescent images of BLM and BLMGLU were taken on PC-3 cells by using fluorescein isothiocyanate. In conclusion, cell culture studies demonstrated that the incorporation values of (131)I-BLMGLU on the four cell lines were about five to six times higher than (131)I-BLM. Radiolabeled glucuronide derivatives can be used in cancer therapy and tumor imaging, depending on the properties of radioiodine for the β-glucuronidase-rich tissues because glucuronidation leads to rapid and higher incorporation on adenocarcinoma cells.
Keywords: 131I; A549; Caco-2; Hutu-80; PC-3; bleomycin; bleomycin-glucuronide.