3D human model for breast cancer drug screening
2017
University of South Florida, Tampa, USA
Despite recent improvements in breast cancer treatment, there are still severe limitations in their efficacy in eliminating breast cancer cells. This can lead to cancer relapse. Thus, better models are needed that accurately replicate the tumour microenvironment. Here, a 3D scaffold-based system with a culture of human breast cancer cells is developed to enrich breast cancer stem cells, increase drug resistance and recapitulate hypoxic tumour environments. The results show that this model could be used to screen several FDA-approved drugs and identify actinomycin D as a potential anti-breast cancer drug. Furthermore, it was revealed that actinomycin D depleted the breast cancer stem cell population from the model through the down-regulation of SOX2, which impeded the progression of the tumour. Overall, the researchers present a 3D platform to better reproduce tumour microenvironments and enhance the translationality of in vitro drug screening for better success rates in breast cancer therapy.
Actinomycin D down-regulates SOX2 expression and induces death in breast cancer stem cells
Subhra Mohapatra
Added on: 10-15-2021
[1] https://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/37/4/1655[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
