Open AccessUse of the disulfiram/copper complex for breast cancer chemoprevention in MMTV-erbB2 transgenic mice
Author(s) -
Yanhui Yang,
Qian Deng,
Xiaoshan Feng,
Junjun Sun
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
molecular medicine reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.727
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1791-3004
pISSN - 1791-2997
DOI - 10.3892/mmr.2015.3426
Subject(s) - oncogene , cancer research , breast cancer , apoptosis , cancer , cell cycle , cell growth , in vivo , cyclin d1 , biology , genetically modified mouse , protein kinase b , disulfiram , mammary tumor , transgene , pharmacology , medicine , biochemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , gene
The disulfiram/copper complex (DS/Cu) has been demonstrated to exert potent anti-tumor effects in various types of cancer. At present, whether DS/Cu has chemopreventive effects on breast cancer development remains to be fully elucidated. In the present study, using MMTV-erbB2 transgenic mice, it was identified for the first time that DS/Cu treatment was able to inhibit cell growth in breast cancer cells while sparing normal cells in vitro, in addition to delaying the development of mammary tumor development in MMTV-erbB2 transgenic mice in vivo. Morphological examination demonstrated that DS/Cu treatment resulted in cell proliferation inhibition and apoptosis activation in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the present study observed that DS/Cu may inhibit proliferation via inhibition of AKT and cyclin D1 signaling and promote apoptosis via c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation and suppression of nuclear factor κB signaling. These results suggested that DS/Cu treatment may be a promising therapy for the prevention of erbB2-positive breast cancer.