CFTR IS INVOLVED IN COLORECTAL CANCER STEM CELL PHENOTYPE

PALMA A; SOARES MACHADO M; MARINO, GABRIELA; LIRA, M C; ROSA, F D; RUBIO M F; COSTAS M A

Mar Del Plata

Congreso; REUNIÓN ANUAL DE SOCIEDADES DE BIOCIENCIA 2019; 2019

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clinica

CFTR is a chloride channel expressed inmany epithelial cells and there is a relationship between thischannel and cancer. The cancer stem cells (CSC) are responsibleof tumorigenesis, secondary focus formation in metastasis andchemoresistance. We previously found that CFTR is expressed incolorectal cancer cells HCT116 and is associated with cancerstem cells (CSC). To further investigate this, we inhibited CFTRactivity with CFTR inhibitor-172 or downregulated CFTRexpression with two different shRNA (shCFTR1 or shCFTR2) inHCT116 cells. When these cells were transfected with theshCFTRs, we observed a downregulation of both CFTR proteinand mRNA by Western blot, immunofluorescence and RT-PCR.Then we determined the clonogenic growth, a property of CSC,of control HCT116 cells and when CFTR is inhibited after sevendays of platting at low density. The number of colonies wasdiminished in cells where CFTR was inhibited (p