Thermodynamic behavior of breast cancer cell lines after miltefosine and cisplatin treatment.

Breast cancers exhibit different response to drug treatment. In this work, we analyze and compare the effect of two anticancer drugs differing in their primary action, miltefosine and cisplatin (cis-Pt), on two different breast cancer (the low—(MCF-7) and high—(MDA-MB-231) metastatic) cell lines, and one normal epithelial (MCF-10A) breast cell lines. The effect of cip-Pt and miltefosine on the thermodynamic behavior of the cancer cell lines was analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry, the cell morphology and viability were determined by optical microscopy and MTT test. We revealed distinct effects of miltefosine and cis-Pt on the thermodynamic behavior and viability of the cancer and normal cells. Importantly, the normal MCF-10A cells were drastically affected by miltefosine, while not by cis-Pt. MDA-MB-231 cell line, on the other hand, is more susceptible to cis-Pt than MCF-7 cells, while both cancer cell lines are equally affected by miltefosine. The drug-associated alteration of the thermal unfolding of the cells constituents correlated with the changes in the cell viability. The altered thermodynamic behavior of the cancer cells upon the drug treatment strongly indicates altered conformations of the proteins in cancer cell membrane and cellular matrix, and the DNA-containing structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]