Effects of Chronic Low Dose Anti-Telomerase and Chemotherapeutic Drugs on Breast Cancer Cells

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women in the United States. Among the different molecular sub-groups of breast cancer, the most invasive is Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC). TNBC has the worst prognosis, decreased overall survival rate and no targeted therapy available. On-going research is investigating new strategies and therapies for TNBC. Therefore, this study’s objective was to compare and contrast the effects of continuous low-dose of BIBR 1532, a novel analogue of BIBR1532 (GV6), Paclitaxel and Doxorubicin on breast cancer (MDA-MB 231) cells. Culture flasks (T-25) were seeded with approximately 5.0x105 cells/ml and supplemented with GV6 (n=4-8) or BIBR 1532 (n=4-8) or Doxorubicin (n=4-8) or Paclitaxel (n=4-8) or non-drug supplemented media (Control, n=4-8) for 21 days. Trypan Blue (Gibco) exclusion test was utilized to assess the viability of the cells. BIBR 1532, Doxorubicin and Paclitaxel reduced (P\u3c0.05) proliferation of the cancer cells by approximately 20-35% by day 7 of treatment compared to the Control. By day 21 of low-dose GV6, BIBR1532, Doxorubicin and Paclitaxel supplementation, the cell counts dropped to about 25% (P\u3c0.05), 55% (P\u3c0.05), 75% (P\u3c0.05) and 50% (P\u3c0.05) of Control, respectively. Our results indicate that continuous low dose anti-telomerase and chemotherapeutic drugs do inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation and merits further investigation