Journal of Integrative Oncology

Mechanistic Studies on the Anti-Tumor Activities of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on the Human Neuroblastoma LA-N-1 Cells

Abstract

Leung KN

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid cancer among infants and children. The prognosis of patients with advanced stages of neuroblastoma with N-myc amplification remains poor despite intense multimodality therapy, and there is a pressing need for alternative therapeutic strategies. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) are naturallyoccurring long-chain fatty acids containing a carbon-carbon double bond at the omega C-3 position. Although previous studies have demonstrated the anti-proliferative effect of n-3 PUFAs on different cancer cell lines in vitro, the anti-tumor effects and underlying molecular action mechanisms of n-3 PUFAs, including docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), on human neuroblastoma cells remained poorly understood. In this study, both DHA and EPA were shown to suppress the proliferation of two human neuroblastoma LA-N-1 and SH-SY5Y cell lines in a concentration- and timedependent manner.