Research Article Silica Nanoparticles Sensitize Human Multiple Myeloma Cells to Snake (Walterinnesia aegyptia)

Copyright © 2012 Douaa Sayed et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Multiple myeloma (MM), an almost incurable disease, is the second most common blood cancer. Initial chemotherapeutic treatment could be successful; however, resistance development urges the use of higher toxic doses accompanied by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The establishment of more effective treatments that can overcome or circumvent chemoresistance has become a priority. We recently demonstrated that venom extracted from Walterinnesia aegyptia (WEV) either alone or in combination with silica nanoparticles (WEV+NPs) mediated the growth arrest and apoptosis of prostate cancer cells. In the present study, we evaluated the impact of WEV alone and WEV+NP on proliferation and apoptosis of MM cells. Methods. The impacts of WEV alone and WEV+NP were monitored in MM cells from 70 diagnosed patients. The influences of WEV and WEV+NP were assessed with flow cytometry analysis. Results. WEV alone and WEV+NP decreased the viability of MM cells. Using a CFSE proliferation assay, we found that WEV+NP strongly inhibited MM cell proliferation. Furthermore, analysis of the cell cycle using the propidium iodide (PI) staining method indicated that WEV+NP strongly altered the cell cycle of MM cells an