Systems Biology of the Proteomic Analysis of Cytotoxic Gold Compounds in A2780 Ovarian Cancer Cell Line: A Network Analysis

Gold and ruthenium compounds hold today great promise as new metallodrugs for treatment of human ovarian carcinoma; yet, their mode of action is still largely unknown. To shed light on their molecular mechanisms in previous studies we performed proteomic analysis in the A2780 human ovarian cancer cell line, after treatment with four different gold and two ruthenium compounds. To gain a better interpretation of their cellular effects we reported here the bioinformatic analysis of proteomic data that confirmed the action of these metallodrugs on previously identified signaling pathways such as glucose metabolism, protein folding, and cell division cycle and apoptosis. In addition, this new study pointed out the involvement of novel pathways such as synthesis and degradation of purine/pyrimidine nucleotides as well mitochondrial energy metabolism. These findings strengthen the idea of energy metabolism and mitochondrial function as possible target of both gold and ruthenium compound in A2780 cell line.