Dextran-catechin conjugate: a potential treatment against the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Purpose A polysaccharide-flavonoid conjugate was develo-13 pend and proposed for the treatment of pancreatic ductal14 adenocarcinoma (PDAC).15 Methods The conjugate was synthesized by free radical grafting16 reaction between catechin and dextran. The chemical character-17 ization of the conjugate was obtained by UV-Vis, 1H-NMR, FT-IR18 and GPC analyses, while the functionalization degree was deter-19 mined by the Folin-Ciocalteu assay. The biological activity of the20 catechin-dextran conjugate was tested on two different cell lines21 derived from human pancreatic cancer (MIA PaCa-2 and PL4522 cells), and the toxicity towards human pancreatic nestin-expressing23 cells evaluated.24 Results Both the cancer cell lines are killed when exposed to25 the conjugate, and undergo apoptosis after the incubation with26 catechin-dextran which resulted more effective in killing pan-27 creatic tumor cells compared to the catechin alone. Moreover,28 our experimental data indicate that the conjugate was less29 cytotoxic to human pancreatic nestin-expressing cells which30 are considered a good model of non-neoplastic pancreatic cells.31 Conclusion The suitability of newly synthesized Dextran-32 Catechin conjugate in the treatment of PDAC was proved33 confirming the high potential application of the proposed mac-34 romolecula system in the cancer therapy.