Anti-cancer effects of human placenta-derived amniotic epithelial stem cells loaded with paclitaxel on cancer cells

Available therapeutic strategies for cancers have developed side effects, resistance, and recurrence that cause lower survival rates. Utilizing targeted drug delivery techniques has opened up new hopes for increasing the efficacy of cancer treatment. The current study aimed to investigate the appropriate condition of primming human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs) with paclitaxel as a dual therapeutic approach consisting of inherent anticancer features of hAECs and loaded paclitaxel. The effects of paclitaxel on the viability of hAECs were evaluated to find an appropriate loading period. The possible mechanism of hAECs paclitaxel resistance was assessed using verapamil. Afterward, the loading and releasing efficacy of primed hAECs were evaluated by HPLC. The anti-neoplastic effects and apoptosis as possible mechanism of conditioned media of paclitaxel-loaded hAECs were assessed on breast and cervical cancer cell lines. hAECs are highly resistant to cytotoxic effects of paclitaxel in 24 h. Evaluating the role of P-glycoproteins in hAECs resistance showed that they do not participate in hAECs resistance. The HPLC demonstrated that hAECs uptake/release paclitaxel with optimum efficacy in 8000 ng/ml treatment. Assessing the anti-proliferative effect of primed hAECs condition media on cancer cells showed that the secretome induced 3.3- and 4.8-times more potent effects on MCF-7 and HeLa, respectively, and enhanced the apoptosis process. These results suggest that hAECs could possibly be used as a drug delivery system for cancer treatment. Besides, inherent anticancer effects of hAECs were preserved during the modification process. Synergistic anticancer effects of paclitaxel and hAECs can be translated into clinical practice, which would be evaluated in the future studies.