Name: DIANDRA ZIPINOTTI DOS SANTOS
Type: MSc dissertation
Publication date: 10/10/2017
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| LETICIA BATISTA AZEVEDO RANGEL | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| LETICIA BATISTA AZEVEDO RANGEL | Advisor * |
| RENATA DALMASCHIO DALTOÉ | External Examiner * |
Summary: Breast cancer is the second most common kind of cancer in the world and the most common among women. Its frequency rate is becoming alarming, being this way a major challenge to global health. It is a complex and heterogeneous disease, composed of multiple subgroups with different biological and morphological characteristics and it shows different clinical manifestations and patterns of response to existing therapies. The metabolic reprogramming has been increasingly recognized as a characteristic of cancer cells. These changes may affect the availability of structural lipids for membrane synthesis, lipid synthesis and degradation that contribute to energetic homeostasis and cellular signaling functions. According to what has been mentioned above and due to the reduced effectiveness of chemotherapy currently in use for certain subgroups of cancer, substances that interfere with lipid metabolism, such as statins, appear as promising auxiliary strategies in the fight against cancer. In this study, atorvastatin alone and in combination with other chemotherapeutics had been evaluated in breast cancer cell lines. The results have shown that the tested drug have antitumor activity on all lineages of breast cancer, being the most effective inhibitor of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell growth. In addition, the antineoplastic effect of atorvastatin appears to be associated with G1 phase cell cycle arrest, as well as autophagy induction Moreover, atorvastatin altered the effectiveness of drugs used in conventional clinic, but most often at higher concentrations than those considered safe and used in the clinic.
Key words: Breast cancer; metabolism; atorvastatin
