Jonathan Pottle, Chengrong Sun, Lloyd Gray, Ming Li
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.
Tau Therapeutics, LLC, Charlottesville, USA.
DOI: 10.4236/jct.2013.47A006   PDF    HTML     4,291 Downloads   6,436 Views   Citations

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate MCF-7 cells’ dependence on calcium for growth and to exploit that dependence to improve chemotherapy efficacy. Fura-2 fluorescence imaging shows that MCF-7 cells maintain a higher basal intracellular calcium concentration than non-tumorigenic MCF-10A cells. Blocking T-type calcium channels with mibefradil reduced MCF-7 intracellular calcium concentration. Flow cytometry shows that knocking down T-type calcium channel expression with siRNA caused an increase in MCF-7 cells in G1 phase and a decrease in cells in S phase. Proliferation assays of MCF-7 cells treated with EGTA and thapsigargin reveal the dependence of MCF-7 cell growth on extracellular and intracellular calcium sources, respectively. In vitro, interlaced treatment that alternated the T-type calcium channel blocker NNC-55-0396 with paclitaxel more effectively reduced MCF-7 cell number than chemotherapy alone. In a mouse in vivo model, interlaced mibefradil and paclitaxel more effectively reduced MCF-7 xenograft size than chemotherapy alone. These findings indicate that MCF-7 cells are dependent on calcium for proliferation, particularly in passing the G1/S cell cycle checkpoint. Further, this dependence on calcium can be exploited by alternating treatment with T-type calcium channel blockers with paclitaxel in an interlaced therapy scheme that increases the efficacy of the chemotherapy.

Keywords

Breast Cancer; Calcium; Calcium Channel Blockers; Ion Channels; Interlaced Therapy

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Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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