tetrandrine, a compound common in chinese traditional medicine, preferentially kills breast cancer tumor initiating cells (tics) in vitro汉,一种常见的中药,优先杀死乳腺癌肿瘤启动细胞(抽搐)体外.pdf

Cancers 2011, 3, 2274-2285; doi:10.3390/cancers3022274 OPEN ACCESS cancers ISSN 2072-6694 /journal/cancers Article Tetrandrine, a Compound Common in Chinese Traditional Medicine, Preferentially Kills Breast Cancer Tumor Initiating Cells (TICs) In Vitro Wei Xu, Bisrat G. Debeb, Lara Lacerda, Jessica Li and Wendy A. Woodward * Division of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA; E-Mails: weixu@ (W.X.); bgdebeb@ (B.G.D.); lcalvarez@ (L.L.); lili@ (J.L.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: wwoodward@; Tel.: +1-713-563-2363; Fax: +1-713-563-6940. Received: 12 January 2011; in revised form: 12 April 2011 / Accepted: 15 April 2011 / Published: 4 May 2011 Abstract: Tetrandrine is a bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid found in Stephania tetrandra, a Chinese medicine commonly used as an anti-inflammatory. It has extensive pharmacological activity, including positive ion channel blockade and inhibition of multiple drug resistance proteins. These activities are very similar to that of salinomycin, a known drug targeting breast cancer initiation cells (TICs). Herein, we tested tetrandrine targeting of breast cancer TICs. SUM-149, an inflammatory breast cancer cell line and SUM-159, a non-inflammatory metaplastic breast cancer cell line were used in these studies. In proliferation assays using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium (MTS), we found that the IC50 for inhibition of proliferation is 15.3 ±4.1 µM for SUM-149 and 24.3 ±