Abstract

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women in the United States. Among the different molecular sub-groups of breast cancer, the most invasive is Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC). TNBC has the worst prognosis, decreased overall survival rate and no targeted therapy available. On-going research is investigating new strategies and therapies for TNBC. Therefore, this study’s objective was to compare and contrast the effects of continuous low-dose of BIBR 1532, a novel analogue of BIBR1532 (GV6), Paclitaxel and Doxorubicin on breast cancer (MDA-MB 231) cells. Culture flasks (T-25) were seeded with approximately 5.0x105 cells/ml and supplemented with GV6 (n=4-8) or BIBR 1532 (n=4-8) or Doxorubicin (n=4-8) or Paclitaxel (n=4-8) or non-drug supplemented media (Control, n=4-8) for 21 days. Trypan Blue (Gibco) exclusion test was utilized to assess the viability of the cells. BIBR 1532, Doxorubicin and Paclitaxel reduced (P<0.05) proliferation of the cancer cells by approximately 20-35% by day 7 of treatment compared to the Control. By day 21 of low-dose GV6, BIBR1532, Doxorubicin and Paclitaxel supplementation, the cell counts dropped to about 25% (P<0.05), 55% (P<0.05), 75% (P<0.05) and 50% (P<0.05) of Control, respectively. Our results indicate that continuous low dose anti-telomerase and chemotherapeutic drugs do inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation and merits further investigation.