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β-Alanine intercede metabolic recovery for amelioration of human cervical and renal tumors

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Abstract

β-Alanine is a non-essential amino acid and presents as a major component of various sports supplements. It is a non-proteogenic amino acid, formed in vivo by degradation of carnosine, anserine, balenine, and dihydrouracil. The present study was aimed at investigating the anti-tumor effects of β-alanine in renal and cervical tumor cells. Sulforhodamine-B assay and flow cytometric analysis were used to measure cell viability. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) expression was analyzed using FITC-conjugated fluorescent antibody. The cellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content was measured using bioluminescence method. Cell migration was determined by the simple standard-scratch method. β-Alanine reduced renal and cervical cell growth significantly. Percentage of inhibition of renal and cervical tumor cells was increased at higher concentration of β-alanine. LDH expression and ATP content were significantly reduced in renal and cervical tumor cells in a dose-dependent manner. Renal and cervical tumor cell migration were significantly reduced following 10 and 100 mM of β-alanine treatment. In our study, β-alanine exerts no significant effect on normal MDCK cells except a marginal effect at the highest concentration (100 mM). In summary, our experimental data suggest that β-alanine may be a potential anti-tumor agent exhibiting several anti-cancer effects in renal and cervical tumor cells.

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Acknowledgements

This paperwork was supported by KU-Research Professor Program, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea. We thank Dr. Han Yong Park, Dr. T. V. M. Sreekanth, Dr. Jaesool Shim and Dr. P. C. Nagajyothi for their valuable suggestions which have considerably improved the quality of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Doo Hwan Kim.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Responsible Editor: Dr. Godefridus J. Peters.

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Pandurangan, M., Enkhtaivan, G., Mistry, B. et al. β-Alanine intercede metabolic recovery for amelioration of human cervical and renal tumors. Amino Acids 49, 1373–1380 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-017-2437-y

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