Aptamin C enhances anti-cancer activity NK cells through the activation of STAT3: a comparative study with vitamin C

Vitamin C is a well-known antioxidant with antiviral, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory properties based onits antioxidative function. Aptamin C, a complex of vitamin C with its specific aptamer, has been reported to maintain oreven enhance the efficacy of vitamin C while increasing its stability. To investigate in vivo distribution of Aptamin C, Guloknockout mice, which, like humans, cannot biosynthesize vitamin C, were administered Aptamin C orally for 2 and 4 weeks. The results showed higher vitamin C accumulation in all tissues when administered Aptamin C, especially in the spleen. Next, the activity of natural killer (NK) cells were conducted. CD69, a marker known for activating for NK cells, which haddecreased due to vitamin C deficiency, did not recover with vitamin C treatment but showed an increasing with Aptamin C. Furthermore, the expression of CD107a, a cell surface marker that increases during the killing process of target cells, also didnot recover with vitamin C but increased with Aptamin C. Based on these results, when cultured with tumor cells to measurethe extent of tumor cell death, an increase in tumor cell death was observed. To investigate the signaling mechanisms andrelated molecules involved in the proliferation and activation of NK cells by Aptamin C showed that Aptamin C treatmentled to an increase in intracellular STAT3 activation. In conclusion, Aptamin C has a higher capability to activate NK cells andinduce tumor cell death compared to vitamin C and it is mediated through the activation of STAT3.