New insight into breast cancer cells involving drug combinations for dopamine and serotonin receptors

Abstract

The breast cancer therapies available are insufficient, especially since first-line treatments, such as paclitaxel, result in drug resistance and their toxicity often limits their concentration. Strategies like drug repurposing are beneficial, and novel treatments can emerge by repurposing drugs that interfere with the dopamine and serotonin receptors, and thus influence tumor growth. In this study, the MTT assay was used to test the efficacy of such repurposed drugs commonly used for neurodegenerative disorders that act on the dopamine and serotonin receptors to reduce the MCF7 cell’s viability, either by their single use or in combination with the reference drug paclitaxel. Furthermore, the expression of vimentin and E-cadherin was assayed by immunofluorescence. The dopamine receptor-altering drugs benztropine and thioridazine resulted in the strongest reduction of cell viability when combined with paclitaxel, which may be connected to the alteration of E-cadherin rather than vimentin expression. More studies are needed to understand the mechanism of action of the combinations tested and the efficacious role of dopamine and serotonin.