JUAN C. STOCKERT^1,2,*, SILVINA A. ROMERO¹, MARCELO N. FELIX-POZZI³, ALFONSO BLÁZQUEZ-CASTRO⁴

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.4, pp. 919-928, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.026631

Abstract

The ¹⁰boron neutron-capture therapy (BNCT) is an emerging antitumoral method that shows increasing biomedical interest. BNCT is based on the selective accumulation of the ¹⁰boron isotope within the tumor, which is then irradiated with low-energy thermal neutrons, generating nuclear fission that produces ⁷lithium, ⁴helium, and γ rays. Simple catechol-borate esters have been rather overlooked as precursors of melanin biosynthesis, and therefore, a proof-of-concept approach for using dopamine-borate (DABO) as a suitable boron-containing candidate for potential BNCT is presented here. DABO can spontaneously oxidize and autopolymerize in vitro, giving a soluble, eumelanin-like brown-black poly-DABO product. Melanotic melanoma cell cultures treated with… More >

JUAN CARLOS STOCKERT^1,2,*, ALFONSO BLÁZQUEZ-CASTRO³

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.6, pp. 1391-1415, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.019493

Abstract

Melanins represent one of the most ancient and important group of natural macromolecular pigments. They have multiple biological roles in almost all organisms across the Phyla, examples being photoprotection, anti-oxidative action, radical scavenger activity, and heavy metal removal. From the biomedical point of view, melanocytes are involved in the origin of melanoma tumors, and the main therapeutic advances for their treatment have been revised in Part 1 of this review. The chemical structure of eumelanin is a biological concern of great importance, and therefore, exploring theoretical molecular models and synthesis mechanisms will be here described, as well as molecular orbital… More >