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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive and lethal malignancy in women, with a lack of effective targeted drugs and treatment techniques. Gradient rotating magnetic field (RMF) is a new technology used in oncology physiotherapy, showing promising clinical applications due to its satisfactory biosafety and the abundant mechanical force stimuli it provides. However, its antitumor effects and underlying molecular mechanisms are not yet clear. We designed two sets of gradient RMF devices for cell culture and animal handling. Gradient RMF exposure had a notable impact on the F-actin arrangement of MDA-MB-231, BT-549, and MDA-MB-468 cells, inhibiting cell migration and invasion. A potential cytoskeleton F-actin-associated gene, CCDC150, was found to be enriched in clinical TNBC tumors and cells. CCDC150 negatively correlated with the overall survival rate of TNBC patients. CCDC150 promoted TNBC migration and invasion via activation of the transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1)/SMAD3 signaling pathway in vitro and in vivo. CCDC150 was also identified as a magnetic field response gene, and it was marked down-regulated after gradient RMF exposure. CCDC150 silencing and gradient RMF exposure both suppressed TNBC tumor growth and liver metastasis. Therefore, gradient RMF exposure may be an effective TNBC treatment, and CCDC150 may emerge as a potential target for TNBC therapy., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Ge Zhang et al.)

Studying the basic characteristics of living cells is of great significance in biological research. Bio-physical parameters, including cell-substrate distance and cytoplasm refractive index (RI), can be used to reveal cellular properties. In this Letter, we propose a dual-wavelength surface plasmon resonance holographic microscopy (SPRHM) to simultaneously measure the cell-substrate distance and cytoplasm RI of live cells in a wide-field and non-intrusive manner. Phase-contrast surface plasmon resonance (SPR) images of individual cells at wavelengths of 632.8 nm and 690 nm are obtained using an optical system. The two-dimensional distributions of cell-substrate distance and cytoplasm RI are then demodulated from the phase-contrast SPR images of the cells. MDA-MB-231 cells and IDG-SW3 cells are experimentally measured to verify the feasibility of this approach. Our method provides a useful tool in biological fields for dual-parameter detection and characterization of live cells.