In Vitro Employment of Recombinant Taenia solium Calreticulin as a Novel Strategy Against Breast and Ovarian Cancer Stem-like Cells
Calreticulin is a chaperone and master regulator of intracellular calcium homeostasis. Several additional functions have been discovered. Human and parasite calreticulin have been shown to suppress mammary tumor growth in vivo. Here, we explored the capacity of recombinant Taenia solium calreticulin (rTsCRT) to modulate cancer cell growth in vitro. We used different concentrations of rTsCRT to treat cancer cell lines and analyzed viability and colony formation capacity. We also tested the combination of the IC rTsCRT has a dose-dependent in vitro anti-tumoral effect, being SKOV3 the most sensitive cell line followed by MCF7. When rTsCRT/5-fluorouracil were used, MCF7 and SKOV3 showed a 60% reduction in cell viability; colony formation capacity was also diminished. Treatment of cancer stem-like cells from MCF7 showed a higher reduction in cell viability, while those from SKOV3 were more sensitive to colony disaggregation. Finally, pharmacological inhibition of the scavenger receptor, abrogated the reduction in viability induced by rTsCRT in both the parental and stem-like cells. Our data suggest that rTsCRT alone or in combination with 5-fluorouracil inhibits the growth of breast and ovarian cancer cell lines through its interaction with scavenger receptors.