Mixed Alkyltrimethylammonium-Alkylcarboxylate Surfactants Systems: A Potential Anti-Proliferation Agent for MDA-MB-231 Cancer Cell Line

Series of catanionic based alkyltrimethylammonium-alkylcarboxylate surfactants systems having different degree of alkyl chain length asymmetry were prepared and tested for their cytotoxicity against both fibroblast 3T3 and breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cell lines. Catanionic surfactant with the highest alkyl chain length possessed significant potent cytotoxicity, with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 4.04 ± 0.06 μM on MDA-MB-231 cell line. Combination of anti-cancer agent (tocotrienol rich fraction,TRF; and curcumin, respectively)with the catanionic at different weight ratios was found to exert lower cytotoxicity on both cell lines as compared to the treated cells with catanionic only. Noticeably, combination of TRF withcatanionic showed higher anti-cancer activities than the incorporation of curcumin with catanionic (resulted low IC50 value). Combination index (CI) of both anti-cancer agent (TRF and curcumin) and catanionic mixtures indicated antagonistic effect (more than 1), respectively, which may explained catanionic surfactant having long alkyl chain length has the potential to act as anti-cancer agent in its pristine form and less effective with other anti-cancer agents combination.