Markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in an experimental breast cancer model induced by organophosphorous pesticides and estrogen (Review)

Abstract

Breast cancer is a major health problem and accounted for 11.6% of all new cancer cases and 6.6% of all cancer deaths among women worldwide in 2018. However, its etiology has remained elusive. According to epidemiological studies, environmental factors are influencing the increase in the incidence of breast cancer risk. Components such as chemicals, including pesticides, are agents that produce deleterious effects on wildlife and humans. Among them, the organophosphorus pesticides, such as malathion, have largely been considered in this etiology. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition serves a key role in tumor progression and it is proposed that malathion is closely associated with the origin of this transition, among other causes. Moreover, proteins participating in this process are primordial in the transformation of a normal cell to a malignant tumor cell. The aim of the current study was to evaluate markers that indicated oncogenic properties. The results indicated greater expression levels of proteins associated with the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, including E-cadherin, Vimentin, Axl, and Slug in the rat mammary glands treated with malathion alone and combined with estrogen. Atropine was demonstrated to counteract the malathion effect as a muscarinic antagonist. The understanding of the use of markers in experimental models is crucial to identify different stages in the cancer process. The alteration of these markers may serve as a predicting factor that can be used to indicate whether a person has altered ducts or lobules in breast tissue within biopsies of individuals exposed to OPs or other environmental substances. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Data collection methods 3. Experimental induced rat mammary gland cancer model 4. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) 5. Main findings 6. Conclusions and future perspectives

Pesticides and Bladder Cancer: Mechanisms Leading to Anti-Cancer Drug Chemoresistance and New Chemosensitization Strategies

“…Further, the TGF-β pathway has been pharmacologically targeted using a multitude of approaches including small molecule inhibitors, TGF-β-directed chimeric monoclonal antibodies, ligand traps, and vaccines [144]. Organophosphorus pesticide exposure enhanced the protein expression of EMT associated proteins vimentin, ax1, and slug [145], while chlorpyrifos (CPF), one of the most frequently used pesticides around the world, increased MMP2 and vimentin expression driving breast cancer invasion [90].…”

Epstein–Barr Virus Association with Breast Cancer: Evidence and Perspectives

“…The authors proposed that EBV presence affects the response of BC cells to nicotine [ 103 ]. In addition, it has been shown that organophosphate pesticides such as malathion or parathion are related to BC by in vitro and in vivo approaches [ 104 , 105 , 106 ]. Notably, it was reported that chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate pesticide, can promote EBV lytic cycle activation by promoting BZLF1 expression by oxidative stress in a lymphoblastoid cell line.…”

Signs of carcinogenicity induced by parathion, malathion, and estrogen in human breast epithelial cells (Review)

“…On the other hand, the influence of ERα-signaling pathways on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition-related transcriptional factors, which are fundamental in the development of breast cancer, has been reported ( 34 , 35 , 101 , 102 ).…”