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Related Experiment Videos

Amino-bisphosphonates decrease hTERT gene expression in breast cancer in vitro.

Luca Dalle Carbonare1, Maria T Valenti, Francesco Bertoldo

  • 1Department of Biomedical and Surgical Sciences, Medicina Interna D, University of Verona, Verona, Italy. luca.dallecarbonare@univr.it

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research
|April 21, 2007
PubMed
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Amino-bisphosphonates, like alendronate and pamidronate, significantly reduce human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene expression in breast cancer cells. This finding offers a new explanation for bisphosphonates

Area of Science:

  • Molecular Biology
  • Oncology
  • Pharmacology

Background:

  • Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is the catalytic subunit of telomerase, with elevated expression and activity observed in most human tumors.
  • Bisphosphonates are crucial in managing bone metastases in cancer patients.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of specific bisphosphonates (clodronate, alendronate, pamidronate) on hTERT gene expression in human breast cancer cells.
  • To explore a potential direct mechanism of action for bisphosphonates on tumor cells.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized real-time RT-PCR to quantify hTERT gene expression.
  • Treated MCF-7 and T47D human breast cancer cell lines with varying concentrations (10(-6) M to 10(-5) M) of clodronate, alendronate, and pamidronate.

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Main Results:

  • Amino-bisphosphonates (alendronate and pamidronate) at 10(-5) M significantly reduced breast cancer cell viability.
  • Alendronate and pamidronate induced a significant decrease in hTERT gene expression in both MCF-7 (82%, 71%) and T47D (74%, 60%) cells.
  • Clodronate showed no significant effect on hTERT gene expression or cell viability.

Conclusions:

  • Amino-bisphosphonates effectively down-regulate hTERT gene expression in human breast cancer cells.
  • This down-regulation of hTERT represents a novel finding and provides a potential direct mechanism for the anti-tumor effects of bisphosphonates.