Nitric oxide hinders estrogen-induced apoptosis in breast cancer
October 2017
Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Estrogen-induced apoptosis is an effective treatment in postmenopausal metastatic estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer patients. However, the role of nitric oxide in the response to estrogen treatment has been generally overlooked. Here, estrogen-induced apoptosis is induced in a 3D culture of a human breast cancer cell line to investigate the impact of nitric oxide before and after the estrogen treatment. The results showed that treated spheroids exhibited downregulation of pathological features. However, treatment with low concentrations of nitric oxide increased cell survival and counteracted the effects of estrogen-induced apoptosis. On the contrary, high concentrations of nitric oxide promoted slower metabolism and cell death. Overall, the researchers demonstrate that low concentrations of nitric oxide can hinder the effectiveness of estrogen-induced apoptosis, which may lead to further exploration of strategies to block nitric oxide activity in breast cancer patients.
Nitric oxide is cytoprotective to breast cancer spheroids vulnerable to estrogen-induced apoptosis
Mordechai Deutsch
Added on: 10-30-2021
[1] https://www.oncotarget.com/article/21610/[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ffebe454-ed9a-47cf-8a33-8cf70c1b7d38
