Scriptaid effects on breast cancer cell lines

In breast cancer tumor expression of estrogen receptors (ERs) is important as a marker of prognosis and mostly as a predictor of response to endocrine therapy. In fact, the loss of α-ER expression leads to unresponsiveness to anti-hormone treatment. In a significant fraction of breast cancers, this loss of expression is a result of epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation and histone deacetylation, within the α-ER promoter. Previous studies have shown that pharmacologic inhibition of these mechanisms using the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine (AZA), and the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, Trichostatin A (TSA), results in expression of functional α-ER mRNA and protein. Moreover, the activity of a novel HDAC inhibitor, Scriptaid, has been shown to induce inhibition of tumor growth in breast cancer and to cause re-expression of functional α-ER in α-ER negative breast cancer cells. We sought to better characterize the effects of Scriptaid on cell growth, apoptosis, and α-ER expression in α-ER-positive (MCF-7), α-ER-negative (MDA-MB-231), and α-ER-negative/Her-2 over-expressing (SKBr-3) human breast cancer cell lines. In all of these cell lines Scriptaid treatment resulted in significant growth inhibition and apoptosis, and RT-PCR confirmed an increase of α-ER mRNA transcript in MDA-MB-231 after 48 h of Scriptaid treatment. Furthermore, following treatment with Scriptaid, the formerly unresponsive MDA-MB-231 and SKBr-3 breast cancer cells became responsive to tamoxifen. These results show that the HDAC inhibitor Scriptaid is able to sensitize tamoxifen hormone-resistant breast cancer cells, and that Scriptaid or related HDAC inhibitors are candidates for further study in breast cancer.