Analysis of miRNA expression profile induced by short term starvation in breast cancer cells treated with doxorubicin

Recent studies showed that dietary approaches restricting food intake can behelpful to hinder tumor progression. To date, the molecular mechanisms are unclearand a key role seems to be exerted by nutrient-related signaling pathways. Sinceseveral evidences showed that non-coding small RNAs, including microRNAs, arecorrelated to cancer progression and antiblastic treatment response, our work aimsto study their involvement in a triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line treatedwith doxorubicin under Short Term Starvation (STS) condition.Human TNBC cell line MDA-MB-231 and healthy breast cell line MCF10A weretreated with 1 μM doxorubicin for 24 h under STS condition for 48 h and miRNAexpression profiles were analyzed using Taqman® Low Density Array A humanmicroRNA microfluidic cards. In addition, the expression of specific mRNAs and miRNAsdifferentially expressed under STS was analyzed using Real-time PCR analyses.MiRNA expression profile analysis in MDA-MB-231 and MCF10A cells treated withdoxorubicin under STS for 48 h could explain the molecular mechanisms underlyinganticancer effects associated to STS. Among deregulated miRNAs, a subset, includingmiR-15b, miR-23a, miR-26a, miR-29a, miR-106b, miR-128, miR-149, miR-181a, miR-192, miR-193b, miR-195, miR-324-3p and miR-494, has been shown to be involvedin pathways related to drug sensitivity/resistance.The obtained data from our study suggest a potential involvement of some miRNAsin molecular pathways mediating the anticancer effects of STS in doxorubicin-treatedbreast cancer cells. Preliminary results seem to be encouraging and, in future, could allowthe discovery of new potential targets useful for the development of new therapeuticapproaches.