2.4. Combinatorial Temozolomide and Peptide Treatment
Temozolomide (TMZ) is an anti-cancer drug that is commonly used in
chemotherapy to treat brain cancer. TMZ is an alkylating agent prodrug,
delivering a methyl group to purine bases of DNA (Zhang et al., 2012).
TMZ was purchased from SelleckChem (Houston, TX). Two Cx43 mimetic
peptides, ⍺CT1 and ⍺CT11 (LifeTein, Somerset, NJ) were evaluated in this
experiment. Different combinations of TMZ and αCT1 or αCT11
concentrations were tested in each cell line to determine the optimal
combination. Organoids are treated with combinations of TMZ (0, 10, 100,
or 1000 μM) and αCT11 (0, 4, 40, 400 μM) or αCT1 peptide (0, 1, 10, 100
μM) for 7 days, with the drugs and peptide replenished on day 4. TMZ and
peptide were dissolved in media and added directly to the organoids.