Bioluminescence imaging reveals inhibition of tumor cell proliferation by Alzheimer's amyloid beta protein.
BACKGROUND
Cancer and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are two seemingly distinct diseases and rarely occur simultaneously in patients. To explore molecular determinants differentiating pathogenic routes towards AD or cancer, we investigate the role of amyloid beta protein (Abeta) on multiple tumor cell lines that are stably expressing luciferase (human glioblastoma U87; human breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB231; and mouse melanoma B16F).


RESULTS
Quantification of the photons emitted from the MDA-MB231 or B16F cells revealed a significant inhibition of cell proliferation by the conditioning media (CM) derived from amyloid precursor protein (APP) over-expressing cells. The inhibition of U87 cells was observed only after the media was conditioned for longer than 2 days with APP over-expressing cells.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that Abeta plays an inhibitory role in tumor cell proliferation; this effect could depend on the type of tumor cells and amount of Abeta.
Zhao
Hong
H
Center for Biotechnology and Informatics, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and Department of Radiology, The MethodistHospital, Weill Cornell Medical College, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. HZhao@tmhs.org
Zhu
Jinmin
J
Cui
Kemi
K
Xu
Xiaoyin
X
O'Brien
Megan
M
Wong
Kelvin K
KK
Kesari
Santosh
S
Xia
Weiming
W
Wong
Stephen T C
ST