“Unveiling mechanisms of copper(II) complexes efficacious against triple negative breast cancer cells”

LEON IE

Simposio; 2nd Annual Brooklyn Breast and Women´s Cancer Symposium; 2022

One of the most aggressive classes of breast cancer is the Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) which accounts for approximately 15% of breast cancer cases and is associated with a poor prognosis since chemotherapy seems to be the only possible treatment, involving side effects [1]. Metallo-drugs are a class of antitumor agents largely used in the treatment of different kinds of solid tumors including breast, colon, and lung. Nevertheless, chemoresistance to platinum is one of the most relevant clinical problems in the treatment and has led to an innovative research approach focusing on the anticancer activity of non-platinum-based compounds [2]. In this sense, copper complexes show promising antitumor, anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic properties activity on vitro and in vivo studies [3]. However, the study of activation pathways targeted by copper compounds has scarcely been reported in the literature, and so far, the data for the discovery of novel molecular targets in cancer have not been completely examined. Therefore, the goal of this work is to identify novel targets of a novel copper(II)-hydrazone (CuHL) complex on MDA-MB-231 cells using Mass Spectrometry-based Quantitative Proteomics.The cytotoxic activity in the 2D model was tested against a panel of human breast cancer cell lines including MDA-MB-231 (triple negative breast) and MCF7 (hormone-dependent breast), and two non-tumoral cell line L929 (mouse fribroblast) and MCF10 (non-tumorigenic epithelial breast), using MTT assay. The complex significantly reduced the cell viability in all cell lines tested (MDA-MB-231 IC50: 1.6± 0.1 µM; MCF7 IC50: 1.7 ± 0.1 µM; L929 IC50: 4.2 ± 0.1 µM; MCF10 IC50: 4.5 ± 0.8 µM) (p