Real-time QCM-D monitoring of cancer cell death early events in a dynamic context.

Since a few years, the acoustic sensing of whole cell is the focus of increasing interest for monitoring the cytoskeletal cellular response to morphological modulators. We aimed at illustrating the potentialities of the quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) technique for the real-time detection of the earliest morphological changes that occur at the cell-substrate interface during programmed cell death. Human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) grown on serum protein-coated gold sensors were placed in dynamic conditions under a continuous medium flow.

Adaptation to statins restricts human tumour growth in Nude mice.

Background: Statins have long been used as anti-hypercholesterolemia drugs, but numerous lines of evidence suggest that they may also bear anti-tumour potential. We have recently demonstrated that it was possible to isolate cancer cells adapted to growth in the continuous presence of lovastatin. These cells grew more slowly than the statin-sensitive cells of origin.

Human caspase 7 is positively controlled by SREBP-1 and SREBP-2.

Statins are lipid-lowering drugs that may help limit cancer occurrence in humans. They drive blockage of the mevalonate pathway, trigger cancer cell apoptosis in vitro and reduce tumour incidence in animals. We have shown in the present study that statins induced apoptosis in HGT-1 human gastric cancer cells, and this was prevented by intermediates of the cholesterol synthetic pathway.