Oxaliplatin inhibits angiogenin proliferative and cell migration effects in prostate cancer cells

Angiogenin (Ang) is a potent angiogenic protein that is overexpressed in many types of cancer at concentration values correlated to the tumor aggressiveness. Here, by means of an integrated multi-technique approach based on crystallographic, spectrometric and spectroscopic analyses, we demonstrate that the anti-cancer drug oxaliplatin efficiently binds angiogenin. Microscopy cellular studies, carried out on the prostate cancer cell (PC-3) line, show that oxaliplatin inhibits the angiogenin prompting effect on cell proliferation and migration, which are typical features of angiogenesis process. Overall, our findings point to angiogenin as a possible target of oxaliplatin, thus suggesting a potential novel mechanism for the antineoplastic activity of this platinum drug and opening the avenue to novel approaches in the combined anti-cancer anti-angiogenic therapy.