Cell culture and chemicals
The human osteosarcoma cancer cell lines U20S and MG63 were kindly provided by professor Kang[14]. The U20S and MG63 cells were cultured in DMEM (Gibco, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) medium supplied with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Gibco-Life Technologies) at 37℃ in 5% CO2 atmosphere. WT161 was purchased from MedChemExpress (NJ 08852, USA) and prepared in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA).
MTT assay
Using complete medium to configure osteosarcoma cells into a single cell suspension, and inoculating cell suspension into 96-well plates at a density of 5000 cells/well. After the drug administration, the 96-well plate was placed in a cell incubator to continue culturing for 24h, 48h, and 96h. The MTT solution were added to each well. After 4 hours, the formation of purple crystals was observed. Then adding DMSO solution to fully dissolve the purple crystals and place them on the microplate reader for detection. The detection wavelength was 490nm. The relative OD value = OD value of experimental well/OD value of control well.
Colony formation
Using complete medium to configure osteosarcoma cells into a single cell suspension, and inoculating cell suspension into 6-well plates at a density of 500 cells/well. After the drug administration, the 6-well plate was placed in a cell incubator to continue culturing for 10 days. After 10 days, the cells were carefully rinsed twice with PBS and immobilized with methanol for 30 minutes. After immobilized, adding 2ml 0.1% crystal violet to each well and stain overnight. Photograph and count the colonies containing > 50 cells
Apoptosis assay
Using complete medium to configure osteosarcoma cells into a single cell suspension, and inoculating cell suspension into 6-well plates at a density of 2×105 cells/well. After the drug administration, the 6-well plate was placed in a cell incubator to continue culturing for 48h. After 48 hours, following the annexin V-FITC/PI apoptosis detection kit (BD Biosciences, USA) to prepare samples for testing. Flow cytometer was used to detect the apoptosis rate of the cells in each sample.
Western blot analysis
The cells were washed 1–2 times using PBS and then added radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) buffer with protease inhibitors incubating on ice for 30 min. The lysates were collected and centrifuged at 1,000 rpm for 20 min at 4 ℃. We used the bicinchoninic acid (BCA) assay kit (Pierce, Rockford, IL, USA) to measure protein concentration. The proteins of each group were fractionated by SDS-PAGE, and then transferred to PVDF membrane. After that, the membranes were soaked in PBST with 5% nonfat dry milk for 1.5 hours at room temperature and then probed with primary antibodies overnight at 4 ℃. After wash extensively, the membranes were probed with second antibody and then wash with PBST for 3 times. Then the proteins were visualized by chemiluminescence (Beyotime Biotechnology, Shanghai, China).
xenograft murine model
24 female BALB/c mice aged 4-6 weeks were prepared for tumor implantation.. Every nude mice were inoculated with 3×106 osteosarcoma cells and to ensure that the number of inoculated cells per nude mouse was consistent. After subcutaneous injection of cells, the xenograft tumor formation were monitored every day. When the tumor size reached about 2cm, nude mice were randomly divided into 4 groups, 2 cages in each group, and 3 nude mice in each cage. The mice were injected intraperitoneally with PBS, WT161 (80 mg/kg), 5-FU (5 mg/kg) or WT161&5-FU combination, respectively once a day. The tumors volumes were measured using a vernier caliper, and the formula for calculating the tumor volume = 0.5×tumor length×(tumor width)2. After about two weeks, the nude mice were euthanized. The tumors were removed, weighed, and the tumors volume were calculated.
Evaluation of drug interaction
Evaluation of drug interaction was conducted as described previously[15]. Briefly, using drug concentrations based on the half maximal inhibitory concentration(IC50) value of each drug as a single drug to produce growth inhibition of about 10% to 90%. When the drugs are used in combination, the drug concentration of the two drugs should be kept at a certain ratio. The combination index(CI) was calculated by the CompuSyn software(Biosoft).
Statistical analysis
We used statistical software SPSS 16 to analyze the experimental data. Results are shown as the mean ± standard deviation(SD). LSD test was used to detect the statistical difference between experimental groups. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.